NEW ORLEANS – Despite career nights from
JR Jacobs and
Grant Kemp, the UTRGV Vaqueros (15-15, 7-12 Southland) were able to outlast the University of New Orleans Privateers (4-26, 2-17 Southland) coming away with an 88-78 victory in Edinburg, Texas on Saturday evening.
Trailing by five points at halftime, six-man New Orleans continued to fight.
Theo Grant muscled his way down the lane and finished strong at the rim, cutting the Vaqueros' lead to 51-48 with 17:16 remaining. Another layup by
JR Jacobs cut it to four points with just over 16 minutes left.
Jacobs then found
MJ Thomas, and the freshman's left-handed finish cut the deficit to a single point with 12:30 remaining. On the next possession, Kwo Agwa attempted to tie up Thomas under the basket but was whistled for a foul. Thomas' two free throws were good, and the Privateers led 56-55.
Back-to-back 3-pointers on the next two UTRGV possessions from DK Thorn and Cliff Davis gave the Vaqueros a lead they would not relinquish.
Luke Davis' layup with 8:19 remaining made it 63-60 Vaqueros, before an 8-0 run sealed the victory for the home team.
Jacobs finished with career highs in points (20) and steals (4). He became the seventh Privateer to score 20 or more points in a game this season. Bringing high energy and fighting for every loose ball, Kemp finished with career highs in points (8), rebounds (11), assists (4) and minutes played (30). He is the third Privateer with 11 or more rebounds in a game this season.
Theo Grant finished with 18 points, four rebounds, three assists and a steal.
MJ Thomas scored 15 points with eight rebounds and two assists.
Leland Coleman scored 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting, and
Luke Davis scored seven points with six rebounds.
The Privateers won the rebounding battle for the seventh time in the last eight games and dominated inside the paint, scoring 50 points to UTRGV's 32. It was the second consecutive game for the Privateers with 50 points in the paint.
DK Thorn led the Vaqueros in scoring with 25 points, including four 3-pointers. Howie Fleming Jr. finished with a double-double after scoring 19 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Cliff Davis scored 16 points with four 3-pointers. UTRGV finished 14 of 36 from 3-point range after starting the game making six of its first 10.
New Orleans wraps up its regular season on Monday night against the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. with coverage available on ESPN+ and The Ticket 106.1 FM.
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