Texas Border Business
PHOENIX, Ariz. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros women’s basketball team fell 77-55 to Grand Canyon University (GCU) on Saturday at GCU Arena in its Western Athletic Conference opener.
Graduate student Amara Graham led UTRGV (4-6, 0-1 WAC) 13 points while grabbing four rebounds dishing out three assists. Junior Jordan Lewis added 11 points, including a career-high two three-pointers, with five rebounds.
GCU (12-3, 4-1 WAC) got game-high 18 points, four rebounds, and four assists from Katie Scott. Tiarra Brown and Tianna Brown each added 13 points while Laura Piera chipped in with 10 points.
GCU came out in the first quarter and took the 6-2 lead after a Piera jumper with 6:31 left in the quarter. Later, sophomore Halie Jones made a layup and then Graham followed with a three-pointer to tie the game at 8-8 but Grand Canyon closed out the quarter with a 9-0 to take the 17-8 lead.
GCU opened the second quarter with seven straight points to push their lead to 24-8. Later in the quarter junior Jessica Martino scored four straight points as part of a Vaqueros’ 6-0 to get within 29-22 with 3:52 left in the half. GCU answered with a 13-2 run to close out the half as they took the 42-24 lead into the locker room.
In the third quarter, GCU pushed their lead to 52-27 after a Ny’Dajah Jackson three-pointer but the Vaqueros chipped away to get the lead down to 57-41 after a three-pointer by Lewis and a free throw by Jones with 2:13 left in the third.
GCU got their biggest lead of the game at 70-43 after nine straight points to open the fourth quarter. Lewis and Graham answered back with three-pointers of their own but GCU was able to keep the game out of reach.
UTRGV and Grand Canyon will wrap up their two-game series on Sunday at 12 p.m. at GCU Arena.
