SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — A wave of orange greeted vehicles as they crossed over the Queen Isabella Memorial Bridge onto South Padre Island this weekend.
UTRGV flags with “#RallyTheValley” printed on them led up to the famous South Padre Island welcome sign, marking the UTRGV women’s basketball team’s home away from home for the weekend as the South Padre Island Convention Centre hosted the second annual UTRGV South Padre Island Classic on Friday and Saturday.
The four-team round-robin tournament featured UTRGV and Grand Canyon nonconference games against UTSA and Liberty. The Vaqueros dropped Friday’s game against UTSA 66-59 and Saturday’s matchup against Liberty 54-32.
“Our administration, our staff did a wonderful job. To have all the orange out here at South Padre, it’s something that we hope is going on for years to come,” UTRGV head coach Lane Lord said. “Obviously we didn’t play our best basketball, but the experience was great and I think the other teams had a great experience as well.”
One of the bright spots was the defense UTRGV (4-7) played in holding Liberty to 54 points, Lord said. Another was the performance of Edinburg High alum A’nnika Saenz, who scored the first points of her college career by drilling a pair of 3-pointers during the fourth quarter against Liberty.
“I was proud of our defensive effort. We only gave up 54 points to that team, and that’s what we’re going to hang our hat on,” Lord said. “There’s going to be days like these, really weekends like this. I believe we were about 6-for-50 on the weekend from 3, which is usually a strength. We just struggled to make shots.”
While the Vaqueros didn’t earn a win on the weekend, they connected with the Lower Valley by bringing Division I women’s basketball to South Padre Island.
Brownsville Lopez and San Benito’s girls basketball teams were in attendance for UTRGV’s game against Liberty on Saturday. During halftime, five players from each team took the court to compete in a friendly shooting competition, which the Greyhounds won by seconds.
“The idea was to build some camaraderie, that’s the first thing, but obviously for them to see what Division I basketball is like,” San Benito girls basketball head coach Abel Moreno said. “They had a really fun time, the experience was great, and they really enjoyed the fact that UTRGV was willing to do this. They’re excited about it and they all came out today.”
“This is exactly what we wanted to have happen … to have the Lower Valley involved,” Lord said. “We’ve got an awesome university and to come to South Padre and see those kids here, it meant a lot. Hopefully, they enjoyed seeing UTRGV out there on the floor.”
Lord said the tourney is looking to move to a six or eight-team field next year.
The Vaqueros will have more than a week off with their Western Athletic Conference opener scheduled for Dec. 30 against Stephen F. Austin (8-3, 0-0) at the UTRGV Fieldhouse in Edinburg.
