Senior guard Javon Levi records his first double-double of the season, 16 points and 11 assists, to lead the Vaqueros (8-3, 2-0) to a 72-65 victory over the Trailblazers (4-5, 0-2) Saturday night at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
The first half was a back and forth affair as there were six total lead changes, before senior guard Rob McClain Jr. was able to make a contested layup to put the Vaqueros on top 37-35 heading into the half.
UTRGV when leading at halftime this season has a 5-0 record and that trend would continue as the second unit came alive scoring 17 points to help the Vaqueros earn the victory.
After falling behind, 55-49, to start the second half, UTRGV junior guard LaQuan Butler scored six straight points at the rim. Senior guard Chris Freeman followed by finding the bottom of the net at all three levels for seven points, to give the Vaqueros a 61-57 lead, which they would not surrender for the final 9:00 of the game.
In a Zoom interview after the game, UTRGV Head Coach Lew Hill spoke about his team’s depth and the role they will play during the conference season.
“Our depth is key to this,” Hill said. “If you don’t have depth playing these backs to back games, I don’t know how you survive the whole year.”
The Vaqueros’ depth is only expected to increase as they look to get key players such as sophomore guard Quinton Johnson II, sophomore forward Jamal Gaines, junior forward Marek Nelson and senior forward Anthony Bratton back from injury.
Levi highlighted how UTRGV’s depth could cause problems for other teams in the WAC.
“We got about eight, nine guys that can really score double figures any given night so coming in you got to be ready for everybody,” he said. “So I think that [is] really going to help us a lot when it comes to game-planning for other teams, make it tough on them.”
With an 8-3 record, UTRGV is off to their best start to a season since the 2004-05 campaign. Despite the success Levi still wants his team to remain hungry.
“One of the best starts in history, but we really haven’t done nothing yet, in my opinion, 8-3 we got a long way to go,” he said.
UTRGV played their first of the seven back-to-backs games this conference season, a measure from the WAC to reduce travel and exposure to COVID-19, and junior forward Sean Rhea, who finished with 12 points and a team-high eight rebounds, talked about the quick turnaround.
“You can’t take anybody for granted at all,” Rhea said. “You always have to be ready. We beat them by 30 yesterday but that don’t mean the same thing is going to happen. Coach [Hill] told us in the locker room, ‘every game is a new game,’ so I think that’s what we took away from it. We’re not taking nobody for granted.”
The Vaqueros will have five days to rest before they face defending WAC Champions New Mexico State (2-1) at 8 p.m. on Jan. 22 and 23 in Phoenix, Arizona after the team relocated due to COVID-19 restriction in the state of New Mexico.
For more updates and highlights visit GoUTRGV.com.
For Vaquero Radio, I’m Luis Rubio.
