The UTRGV women’s basketball team picked up a 69-65 victory against the Utah Tech Trailblazers behind a dominant performance on the boards Thursday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse in Edinburg.
The Vaqueros out-rebounded the Trailblazers 54-36, including 28-8 on the offensive glass, to snap a five-game losing streak in conference play.
UTRGV improves to 8-12 overall and 2-7 in Western Athletic Conference competition.
“We’ve been in this same position the whole conference season and tonight we got over the hump and we made the plays down the stretch that we needed to make. We really focused on rebounding this week and we out-rebounded them 54-36,” UTRGV head coach Lane Lord said.
Freshman Charlotte O’Keefe led the Vaqueros with a career-high 17 rebounds, tied for sixth-highest single-game total in program history, and 10 points for her second double-double. This is the first time a Vaquero has grabbed 17 rebounds in a game since Dec. 17, 2016, when Mary Savoy had 17 rebounds against Evangel. The 17 rebounds also tied the program record for rebounds in a WAC game, matching Brittany Bush’s 17 against New Mexico State on Feb. 20, 2014.
Sophomore Deborah Ogayemi grabbed 13 rebounds with 14 points and three steals for her fourth double-double. Junior Mele Kailahi scored a team-high 15 points on a career-high five 3-pointers. Sophomore KaCee Kyle finished with 13 points.
“I think a lot of us were tired of losing by single digits. A lot of it came down to that fourth quarter, just the fight, even if you’re down, you still have to keep fighting and we did that this game,” Kyle said.
“We knew in the fourth quarter it wasn’t going to be easy but we had to compose ourselves. The only way to win was to fight, but with composure, so that’s exactly what we did in the fourth quarter,” Ogayemi said.
Amber Kartchner led the Trailblazers (13-8, 5-5 WAC) with 20 points, seven rebounds, four assists, four steals and two block. Taylia Stimpson scored 10 points with four assists.
The Vaqueros scored the first 10 points of the third quarter as part of what became a 16-1 run over a span of five minutes in which Ogayemi hit five layups, Kyle hit two layups and a jumper, and the Vaqueros went 8-for-12 from the field to take a 42-31 lead.
The Trailblazers caught fire after that, going on a 14-2 run to regain the lead. The Vaqueros tied the game at 48 on an O’Keefe jumper in the closing seconds of the quarter.
The Trailblazers scored the first four points of the fourth quarter to take the lead, but Kailahi responded with three-straight 3-pointers to put the Vaqueros up 57-52.
The Trailblazers took the lead once more at 58-57 with 4:27 remaining, but the Vaqueros scored the next nine points, including a 3-pointer by junior Halie Jones, to take the lead for good.
UTRGV is back in action at 2 p.m. Saturday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse in Edinburg to face Southern Utah.
Tickets are available at UTRGVTickets.com.