The UTRGV Women’s Basketball Team flipped the crowd’s energy during the final seconds against the Utah Valley University Wolverines with a 63-62 win Thursday at the Fieldhouse.
During the fourth quarter, with 25 seconds remaining, the Vaqueros were down 61-60. Junior guard Arianna Sturdivant put the Vaqueros in the lead 62-61 after an assist from freshman guard Jayda Holiman. Graduate forward Ashton McCorry banked one free throw to make the final score 63-62.
Head coach Lane Lord shared his thoughts on Thursday’s game.
“What a game,” Lord said. “Two things we talked about before the game we needed to do really well was take care of the basketball. The other thing we talked about was rebounding, and we just got absolutely kicked on the boards against tonight, but you know what, we had two huge rebounds at the end of the game.”
Junior guard/forward Kade Hackerott helped lead the team to victory by totaling 9 points with 7 rebounds and 3 assists. Lord was surprised by the 3-pointer she made.
“I think Kade hit a big 3, which she’s just not a 3-point shooter, but she knocked one down for us,” he said. “It was just exciting because we’ve lost what? Five or six one-point games or overtime games, and it’s just exciting to see these guys finish one out.”
Holiman explained her thought process during the final five seconds of the game where she got the rebound.
“Well, coach Lord and coach [Hackerott], they were just like, you know, telling us that we need to rebound and that, ‘This is not going well. Y’all got to rebound,’” she said. “So when I saw that shot up, you know, my first thing on my mind was like, ‘I gotta go get it’ . . . and jump as high as I could and get it, and kick it out to like a good shooter, or someone I know, you know, who could knock it down, which is everyone on the court obviously. But I saw Ari first, and I knew she would knock it down, so it was my first opportunity I saw.”
Both teams kept calling for timeouts toward the last minutes of the fourth quarter. During these timeouts, Lord shared what he emphasized to his athletes.
“We’re just trying to set up our play that we’re gonna run, and I thought we executed those,” he said. “When they had the ball, we’re talking about how we’re gonna defend it. We’re gonna switch every screen and try not to let them get a shot off there at the end.”
Lord said he felt late-coach Lew Hill bless the team’s victory.
“I really feel like, and this sounds crazy, but I feel like Lew Hill was here tonight,” he said. “I feel like he blessed us tonight, and I felt him, and I don’t know why. It’s just weird and I just felt like he was gonna help us get through this. You know, we never talk about coach Hill as much as we should. He meant so much to this university, but I felt like he was watching down on the Vaqueros tonight. Kinda cool.”
The Vaqueros played against the Seattle University Redhawks Saturday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse. Visit goutrgv.com for results.
This is Victoria Gonzalez for Vaquero Radio.
