On Feb. 17, the UTRGV Men’s Basketball Team fell 68-60 to the University of Incarnate Word Cardinals in an intense back-and-forth showdown.
As of Friday, the Vaqueros held a 14-13 overall record and were 6-10 in conference.
In the first half, the Cardinals took the lead with sophomore guard Jordan Pyke scoring a dunk followed by a 3-pointer from graduate point guard Jalin Anderson.
The Vaqueros quickly retaliated as graduate guard DK Thorn scored a 3-pointer to take the lead.
Redshirt junior guard Howie Fleming Jr. extended UTRGV’s lead by scoring another 3-pointer, closing out the first half with a 36-31 lead.
As the second half began, UTRGV and Incarnate Word exchanged point after point, fighting hard to take home the win.
Despite the Vaqueros’ efforts, the Cardinals took the lead and secured the victory with a final score of 68-60.
Head coach Kahil Fennell said the team’s loss was disappointing and gave credit to how well the opposing team played.
“Obviously massively disappointing,” Fennell said. “Full credit to Incarnate Word. They did a tremendous job of staying in the fight and staying more poised than we were, and just stayed a little bit more focused on making game-winning plays. We really lost sight of that.”
He acknowledged the disappointing performance means there is the need for more consistency.
“There’s all types of things that we need to drastically improve,” Fennell said. “I need to do a better job of emphasizing those things and getting those things registered in our guys’ minds, so we could be a little more consistent. The other thing that’s disappointing about this performance is we haven’t shown this in the last few games. To come out like this in a string where we have been playing pretty decent, [it] makes it pretty disappointing.”
With only four conference games left, he said there is a need for greater effort and discipline within the team.
“We just got to get better,” Fennell said. “Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We have to fix it. We have to find solutions. We have to take it upon ourselves to rebound [and] make multiple effort to win 50-50 balls. Nobody can be standing and watching. There has to be a little bit more pride on that end. I have to do a better job of coaching that.”
The UTRGV Men’s Basketball Team took on Nicholls State University Saturday. Results are available at goutrgv.com.
This is Leonardo Guajardo for Vaquero Radio
