AUSTIN — The UTRGV Vaqueros found themselves within striking distance of the Texas Longhorns on Friday, trailing the nation’s No. 7-ranked team by only five points going into halftime following a late basket by freshman forward RayQuan Taylor.
The Longhorns flexed their muscle coming out of the break, however, going on a 29-4 run during the first 10 minutes of the second frame en route to a crushing 88-58 victory over the Vaqueros at the Frank Erwin Center.
“The defensive intensity that Texas came out with in the second half, that created all the problems,” UTRGV head coach Matt Figger said. “We had more turnovers than we had shot attempts. That’s all credit to them. They buckled up and realized they could switch and do some things to keep our guys out the paint. I wasn’t pleased with our fight in the second half.”
Taylor led the Vaqueros with 15 points and nine rebounds, shooting 6-of-8 from the field. Meanwhile, Justin Johnson, who came in averaging 20.8 points per contest, was held in check by the Longhorns, scoring 12 points on 3-of-11 shooting.
“Everybody committed to him off the bounce on defense,” Figger said. “Defensively, they put two or three in his space when he drove. They forced him to try and go to his left hand which he is going to have to get better at. I think they did a good job of frustrating and confusing him.”
Missing from the lineup due to injury for the Vaqueros was 6-foot-7 forward Marek Nelson, who is averaging 10.9 points and 3.9 rebounds per game.
“It hurt us from an offensive standpoint,” Figger said. “He (Nelson) has been able to stretch the floor at the four. Where we hurt Illinois is that we could dribble drive from different spots and make 3-pointers. He’s been our second-leading scorer the past couple games. Not having him was hurting, but from the flipside of it RayQuan Taylor had 13 points and eight rebounds.”
The Longhorns had four players score in double figures, including a game-high 17 points by Christian Bishop. Timmy Allen and Tre Mitchell each added 13 points, while Marcus Carr netted 11 points.
The Vaqueros did their best to match the Longhorns hot shooting during the first half, with both teams shooting over 50% from the field, including UTRGV firing at a 62.5% clip from beyond the arc.
During the second half, however, the Longhorns stifled the Vaqueros’ offense, holding them to a 31.6% shooting percentage, including 1-of-8 from 3-point range.
“My respect for Rio Grande Valley,” Texas head coach Chris Beard said. “The first half a lot of the stuff wasn’t us choosing not to play well. Our guys were dialed in, but you have to give a lot of credit to the opponent.
“I’m not going to sit here and let the narrative be that we didn’t play good. Our guys were dialed in. Rio Grande Valley had a lot to do with our misfortunes in the first half.”
FAMILIAR FACE
Sitting on the sidelines leading the Longhorns was a familiar face for UTRGV Director of Athletics Chasse Conque. While serving as Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Conque hired Beard to lead the men’s basketball team in April 2015.
With Beard and Conque, the Trojans finished the 2015-16 season with a 30-5 record, advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament following an 85-83 double-overtime win over Purdue.
UP NEXT
The loss by the Vaqueros drops them to 4-5 on the season, with three games remaining before conference play. They’ll turn their attention to a rematch against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (5-1) at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi.
