Leonardo Guajardo/Vaquero Radio
The Vaqueros took down the East Texas A&M Lions in an intense back-and-forth showdown Jan. 13 at the Fieldhouse.
As of Friday, the Vaqueros held an 11-6 overall record and were 3-3 in conference play.
Just three minutes after the first half began, the Lions gained the advantage over the Vaqueros and secured an 8-point lead.
UTRGV chipped away at the Lions’ lead after senior guard Cliff Davis scored a clutch 3-pointer and redshirt junior guard Howie Fleming Jr. drove to the basket for a layup in the final minute of the half.
Despite the attempts of the Vaqueros, the Lions held onto the lead, ending the first half with a 27-26 score.
Fleming said his teammates helped him get through the game, despite falling short during the first half.
“It was honestly my teammates, all of them have faith in me,” he said. “They encouraged me to go and play my game and I found myself, at one point, with four of the guys on the floor telling me to do my thing. Having that group of good guys behind me, pushing me and encouraging me, it kind of makes it easy for me to go out there and just give it my all honestly.”
As the clock for the second half began winding down, the Lions refused to give up the lead so easily. The Vaqueros, however, remained resilient.
Amid the thick air, Fleming was able to dribble the ball and successfully perform a well-timed layup, erupting the crowd and allowing UTRGV to finally steal the lead from the Lions.
As the clock struck its last second, UTRGV’s defense held strong against the Lions, relieving the home crowd and ending the game with a score of 57-55.
Head coach Kahil Fennell shared his concerns about the game overall.
“It was ugly, nasty, it was sloppy,” Fennell said. “We played huge slices of the game with very little energy, and we had to kind of really stick to a core group of guys that we would play with juice and play with enthusiasm and play with some passion and some fight. It wasn’t beautiful, but it’s much better to learn from a win than it is a loss, obviously.”
Taking the narrow win into account, he emphasized the strength the team aims to achieve in future games.
“We will play better offensively and defensively,” Fennell said. “We will make shots. We will take care of the basketball. We’ve shown that consistently for the rest of this year. [So, I have a tremendous amount of confidence in] our ability to play better and play at a high level. But when we combine those two elements of our grit and our resilience with that kind of aesthetically pleasing high level of skill basketball, you know, I’d like to think we would be a pretty good version of ourselves down the road.”
After the motivation Fleming received from his team, he reflected on the second half of the game.
“It was really just a look in the mirror and just asking myself what I wanted out of it,” he said. “I gave it my all and I owe it to my team to give it my all. So, honestly, that second half I just felt like I just went out there and gave it my all. It was nothing crazy. I didn’t tell myself nothing crazy. I just practice what I preached.”
The Vaqueros played against the University of Incarnate Word Cardinals on Monday. Results are available at goutrgv.com
This is Leonardo Guajardo for Vaquero Radio.
