HCU Huskies fall to UT-Rio Grande Valley on Saturday night

Story and photo by Robert H Kelly       
Copyright 2022 All Rights Reserved

HOUSTON, TEXAS (December 10, 2022) HCU Huskies guard Bryson Long connected for three points to tie the score at six at the 17:25 mark of the first quarter. After that, the UT-Rio Grande Vaqueros hit the gas and proceeded to their 95-82 win over the Huskies at Sharp Gymnasium on Saturday night.

The Huskies got within eight points of the Vaqueros with 52 seconds remaining in the first half, but never got any closer; with UTRGV leading by 24 points early in the second half. The loss was the eighth for the Huskies in 2022 and set up a rematch against the Vaqueros on Sunday, December 18 on Padre Island.

Brycen Long (Gilbert HS, Gilbert, Arizona) led the Huskies with 26 points, his second highest scoring performance of the season. The starting guard was followed by Bonke Maring (Cypress Springs HS, Cypress, Texas) with 18 and Andrew King (Bella Vista Prep, Phoenix, Arizona) with 14. 

UTRGV (6-4) tallied four players in double-digits with Will Johnston (The King's School, Sydney NSW, Australia) leading the way with 28 points. Dima Zdor (Saint James School, Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine) posted 11 rebounds; the most of the entire match.

Shooting and rebounding is what contributed to the Vaqueros win, as they outshot the Huskies from the field (56% to 44%), three-point shooting (47% to 34%) and in total rebounds (44 to 28). The Huskies carried a slight edge in free throws (76% to 62%).

Rice Owls down UTRGV in 2nd round of WBI

Photo by Robert H Kelly
Copyright 2017 All Rights Reserved

By Robert H Kelly
Copyright 2017 TexSport Publications

HOUSTON, TEXAS (March 19, 2017) The Rice Owls moved to the semifinals of the 2017 Women’s Basketball Invitational (WBI) with a 73-63 win over the UT Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros by the score of 73-63 at Tudor Fieldhouse on Sunday, March 19, 2017. They will face the winner of the Idaho vs. Eastern Washington game, which is to be played on Monday, March 20 in Cheney, Washington.

Senior Jasmine Goodwine tallied 23 points and 14 rebounds for her sixth career double-double. The Killeen, Texas native shot 9-of-16 from the field and 4-of 6 from the free throw line. Sophomore Lauren Grigsby added 24 points for the Owls while going 12-of-12 from the line. The Vaqueros were 20-of-65 from the field (31%) and 18-of-26 from the free throw line.

The win was the first time since the 1998-1999 season that the Owls have won two games in the post-season. Playing in the Women’s NIT, they downed Miami 65-58 and Baylor 82-20 before falling to Arkansas 76-70 in the third round.

Houston Cougars top UT Rio Grande Valley 83-58

Houston head coach Kelvin Sanpson has the Cougars
out to an 8-2 record for the 2016-2017 season.
Photo by Darla Tamulitis, La Vita Loca Photography,
Copyright 2016 All Rights Reserved

By Robert H Kelly

Copyright 2016 TexSport Publications

HOUSTON, TEXAS (December 17, 2016) The Houston Cougars jumped out to a 39-26 lead in the first half and went on to down the UT Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros by the score of 83-58 in front of a small but vocal crowd at Hofheinz Pavilion in Houston, Texas on Saturday, December 17, 2016. The win pushed the Cougars to 8-2 for the season and gives them a 12-0 record against the Vaqueros. Starting forwards Danrad Knowles and Damyean Dotson, along with starting guard Rob Gary combined for 55 of the Cougars’ points. Dotson led all scorers with 25 points, followed by Gray with 16 and Knowles with 14. Armoni Brooks came off the bench to add 10, with Wes VanBeck contributing nine. The Cougars shot 51% from the field and 75% from the free throw line. Dotson tallied 10 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. For the Vaqueros, Antonio Green tallied 11 points.

Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson discussed the Cougars' performance in the post-game press conference

We came out and played really hard from the start. We were pleased with a lot of guys effort tonight. I’m disappointed with some things that we just have to keep working on. We must get our bigs to rebound, that’s the bottom line. We play these other teams that have really good offensive rebounding bigs. Our guards are going to do a good job rebounding. I’m really pleased with our guards rebounding. We emphasize that a lot obviously. Danrad Knowles is scoring the ball better. We’re going to him, we have a lot of confidence in Knowles. Knowles only had one rebound today, that’s not going to be good enough . With our team going on, we didn’t play well in a couple games early. We’re a lot better team today than we were then. We are going to be a lot better a month from now then we are today. Losing games is not an issue. I don’t ever worry about that. What I worry about is how do we get better. I’m excited that we have a team that can continue to get better.

Next up for the Cougars will be a Wednesday, December 21 matchup against Liberty College, followed two days later with their final non-conference game against Harvard. Both games are scheduled for a 7 p.m. CST start at Hofheinz Pavilion.