The Men’s Vaquero basketball team, led by Head Coach Matt Figger, secured their first season win against Texas A&M International Dustdevils at Tuesday night’s game with a 74-59 score.
The men’s starters, Graduate student Marek Nelson, Junior Justin Johnson, Graduate student Mike Adewunmi, Junior Ricky “Doc” Nelson and Junior LaQuan Butler closed halftime 41-32 with the best scoring run of nine points.
Johnson scored 13 points with a career-high seven rebounds, a career-high tying four assists, a career-high tying three steals and a career-high tying two blocks, according to UTRGV Athletics.
UTRGV Athletics reported a 1,711 crowd at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
When asked about the crowd, Butler said he was not aware of the turnout.
“Definitely felt like, its good to have the fans back. Because last year, we didn’t really get to have that experience … So it was, definitely, fun, fun night.”
At the post game interview, Figger said he was happy for the win, but was disappointed in their offense. Butler led the Vaqueros with 19 points, but held 6-6 in free throws.
Figger said this about the outcome.
“Concentration, obviously, it’s hard to shoot free throws when you run 6 or 7 trips up and down the floor…”
Figger also said,
“Lack of concentration, is 17 turnovers, and 18-25 from the free throw line.”
When asked if the returning crowd played a role in their offense, Figger disagreed.
“I think it’s to me, fatigue, because I’ve got one guy played 36 minutes, it was 4-7, another guy played 36 minutes, it was 3-5. I mean, outside of those two guys, everybody else was 2-3 or whatever.”
Figger does not want to think about their next game with Arizona, which occurs 8 p.m. tomorrow on PAC-12 Networks.
Their next home game is 7 p.m. Tuesday against Paul Quinn College, according to UTRGV Athletics.
For free admission, a valid UTRGV student id is required at check-in.
This is Carla Landaverde for Vaquero Radio.
