FIGGER NOTCHES 100TH VICTORY AS UTRGV MEN’S BASKETBALL WIN SEASON OPENER
November 6, 2023
RIO GRANDE VALLEY – Head coach Matt Figger notched his 100th-career victory as The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men’s basketball team opened the 2023-24 season with a 110-59 victory over the Southwestern Adventist University Knights on Monday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse in front of a crowd of 1,622.
Figger now sports a career record of 100-91 (.524).
The Vaqueros (1-0) finished with 22 steals, tied for the third-highest single-game total in program history, while scoring 43 points off turnovers.
Junior Daylen Williams led the Vaqueros with a career-high 20 points on a career-high 8-of-9 shooting, nine rebounds, four assists, and a career-high five steals. Graduate student DeAnthony Tipler Jr. scored 17 points with a career-high five steals. Junior Hasan Abdul-Hakim scored 14 points with 11 rebounds, seven assists and two steals. Junior Elijah Elliott scored a career-high 14 points with three rebounds, a career-high seven assists, one steal and a career-high three blocks. Senior C.J. Jackson scored 13 points with seven rebounds, three assists, one block and one steal. Freshman J.J. Howard scored 12 points with three rebounds, two assists and two steals in his collegiate debut.
Orlando Gooden led the Knights with 20 points. Nigil Coleman scored 12 points.
The Knights went up 5-4 in the opening minutes. That’s when Williams and Tipler bookended a 10-0 run with 3-pointers to put the Vaqueros up 14-5.
Then, with the score 16-9, the Vaqueros scored 13-straight points while forcing five turnovers and holding the Knights to just one shot attempt during that span.
The Vaqueros went on another 10-0 run late in the half when a pair of Tipler 3s, a dunk by sophomore Alex Horiuk and a layup by Jackson put the Vaqueros up 30 for the first time at 48-18.
The Vaqueros went up by 40 for the first time on an Abdul-Hakim layup as part of a 14-2 run to open the second half that made the score 73-27.
The Vaqueros extended their lead to 50 for the first time on an Elliott 3 that made the score 82-32.
The Vaqueros led by as many as 54 points at 93-39 on a Tipler layup with 8:48 remaining.
UTRGV plays its next three games on the road, starting Friday at 7 p.m. against South Dakota at the historic Sanford Pentagon. Fans can watch online via Team1Sports.
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