EDINBURG — Jarrett Culver scored 41 points and fan favorite Trhae Mitchell electrified the crowd down the stretch with a huge 3-pointer and dunk as the RGV Vipers claimed an intense 128-117 win over the Iowa Wolves on Thursday at Bert Ogden Arena.
The win is the fourth straight for the Vipers (14-12), who moved into a tie for the sixth and final playoff position. It is also the fourth of five games against teams with a sub-.500 record. Iowa (8-18) and RGV play again at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Bert Ogden.
The teams were tied at 109 before the Vipers closed the game with an impressive and electrifying 19-8 run. Before that run, the teams tied 13 times and exchanged the lead 20 times.
It was 117-114 when Culver knocked down his third 3-pointer of the evening and shot 16-of-19 from the floor overall. After that basket, the dam burst open. Darius Days made it 122-114, and Mitchell followed with a dunk that brought the crowd loudly into the game. Culver scored two more times to put the game away.
“I don’t say this enough, but I need to thank our fans tonight — they were great,” head coach Kevin Burleson said. “At one point I heard them yelling and looked up to see who was yelling. That lifted our players and really got us playing.
“And ‘Honest’ (Mitchell) is always a catalyst and ignites us. He makes certain plays and got us going. And I’ll tell everyone he’s also the best defender in the world. We can put him on anyone and just not worry about it.”
Days finished with 28 points and 11 rebounds while TyTy Washington Jr. scored a triple double with 12 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists despite shooting just 6-of-24 from the floor.
Culver was hot from the beginning of the game, coming off the bench for nearly 34 minutes of playing time. In the end, RGV outscored Iowa 34-18 in the fourth quarter.
The Minnesota Timberwolves reassigned Luka Garza and Matt Ryan to Iowa prior to Thursday’s game, bolstering its offensive presence. Garza is averaging 30.3 points, 9.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game in 11 games with the Wolves. Ryan is averaging 26.0 points and 3.5 assists in two games with Iowa. Both shoot better than 45% from 3-point land.
Garza, true to form, finished the night with 29 points and nine rebounds on 13-of-22 shooting. Ryan was just 4-of-14 and was the recipient of plenty of fan yelling, even turning back once in the fourth quarter to say something to a fan along the sideline after having a foul called on him.
The Vipers contracted the turnover bug early on, losing the ball six times during the first 6:30 of the first quarter that resulted in seven Iowa points. Their 58.3% shooting from the floor, however, kept the game tied at 18 early and at 35 after one quarter. Craig Randall paced the Wolves with 18 first-quarter points and 31 for the game.
“We knew it was going to be a high-scoring game,” Burleson said. “They have a lot of firepower with Luka and Ryan and Randall and some others. There are things we can do with Luka, I think, to maybe slow him down a little, but he’s going to score. Maybe we can do some things to slow him down a little and negate some of that.”
There were four technical fouls called in the game, two for each team as they both continue to fight for playoff position even though Iowa needs to win out and have plenty of help, especially after the loss.