In a rough shooting performance, UTRGV women’s basketball (5-11, 1-6) falls 54-62 against Utah Valley University (9-5, 7-4) Friday night at the Fieldhouse.
In the first quarter, both teams struggled to find the bottom of the net as neither team cracked double digits finishing the opening frame tied at nine.
UTRGV went 4-18 from the field and 1-8 from deep and the Utah Valley’s shooting splits fell at 20% from the field and 0-3 from beyond the arch.
In the second quarter, the ball flew around for the Wolverines in the half court as six different players were able to get on the board.
UTRGV countered with graduate guard Amara Graham scoring at all three levels to give the Vaqueros a 25-22 lead at the break.
Graham, in the second frame, scored 11 or her game-high 24 points and finished the day with three rebounds and two steals in 37 minutes.
The Wolverines, to start the third quarter, went to the paint on three separate occasions with sophomore forward Shay Fano and graduate center Josie Williams to even the score at 30.
Williams would finish the game with a team-high 15 points and Fano would record her second double-double of the season with 14 points and a game-high 11 boards.
Utah Valley would end the quarter and double UTRGV to end up with a 50-40 lead headed into the final frame of play.
Although the Vaqueros outshot the Wolverines 14-12 in the fourth quarter, the Wolverine lead was too much to overcome.
For the game, UTRGV would shoot 35% from the field and 33% from downtown as only sophomore guard Jena’ Williams would have an efficient night with eight points on 3-5 shooting with no other Vaquero shooting over 40% from the field.
In a postgame news conference via Zoom, UTRGV Head Coach Lane Lord spoke to the frustration of a night when the ball is not falling through the hoop.
“If we could make a couple buckets, we go on a stretch there and miss six, seven in a row that are wide open, and when they are wide open as a basketball player you need to put them in the hole 50% of the time so we struggled to shoot it in the third and fourth quarter,” Lord said.
He also added that when shots are not falling, like tonight, players need to find different ways to affect the game.
“I think mentally you always go through that as a shooter but that’s when you have to get an offensive rebound and put back, that’s when you got to do the other things to help the team win,” Lord said.
The Wolverines despite shooting 21% from three, shot 41% from the field and went to the charity strip 17 times converting 11.
UTRGV will be back in action at 3 p.m. Saturday at home as they look to split the season series against Utah Valley.
When asked what he wants to see from his team tomorrow, Lord’s response was simple.
“We made some great passes; we skipped the ball like we were supposed to just didn’t hit them tonight and hopefully they’ll go in tomorrow.”
To listen to the game live, visit utrgvradio.com or download the RadioFX app on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
Twitter: @Radio_Rubio
