EDINBURG, Texas – HCU held a lead for more than half the game and led by as many as seven points before dropping a 58-55 Southland Conference women's basketball matchup in overtime to UT Rio Grande Valley at the UTRGV Fieldhouse on Saturday afternoon.
The Huskies (6-19, 3-13 SLC) found themselves in a 9-2 hole less than four minutes in as UTRGV (14-13, 9-7 SLC) ran off seven-straight points. Over the first quarter's final six minutes, however, HCU out-scored the hosts, 11-5, behind seven points by
Erin Maguire and four by
Tiffany Tullis to trailed 14-13.
Kierra Prim opened scoring in the second, knocking down a three, before
Hannah Fields made a driving layup to put HCU ahead, 18-14. The Vaqueros' Tierra Trotter made one-of-two free throws to trim it a three-point HCU lead but
Jo Oly knocked down a pair of free throws and
Amy Cotton nailed a jumper to give the Huskies' their largest lead of the half, 22-15. UTRGV hit two three-pointers over the final five minutes of the half but HCU answered with points each time and took a 26-21 lead into the half.
The third quarter saw the two teams go back and forth scoring for much of the 10 minutes with HCU leading by anywhere from three to six points the entire quarter. The third 10 minutes ended with HCU holding a 37-33 advantage.
The Huskies were hurt by a stretch of just over 10 minutes without scoring that went from the middle of the third and into the fourth. While HCU held UTRGV to just two points in the final six minutes of the third quarter the Vaqueros began the fourth with an 8-0 run to pull ahead, 41-37.
Maguire and Cotton got the HCU offense going again with consecutive buckets, evening the score at 41-41 with 4:34 left in regulation. Kade Hackerott put the Vaqueros back ahead, 43-41, with a pair of free throws but back-to-back threes from Maguire and Cotton put the Huskies back ahead by four, 47-43, with 2:30 on the clock. Two Chynell Mitchell free throws and a Charlotte O'Keefe layup tied things up with just a minute to go and neither team could find the basket before the buzzer at the end of regulation.
Maguire connected on a pair of free throws to put HCU ahead but a seven-point burst gave the hosts a 54-49 lead with just 31 seconds to go. Cotton buried a three to trim the HCU deficit down to just two, 54-52, at the :23 mark. Four seconds later, Hackerott knocked down a pair of free throws to again make it a four-point game. As the clock ran down below 10 seconds, Maguire heaved a three from the top of the arc and banked it in, pulling HCU within one, 56-55, with just eight ticks left on the clock. Hackerott put the game away, however, with a pair of free throws before the buzzer.
The Huskies got 21 points from Maguire who fell one shy of her career-high, connecting on 8-of-17 from the floor while also pulling down five rebounds. Tullis and Cotton each added 10 points, pulling down seven and five boards, respectively. HCU shot 38.6 percent (21-of-57) from the field as a team while limiting UTRGV to just 29.8 percent (17-of-57).
HCU returns home this Thursday, Feb. 20, to host Stephen F. Austin inside Sharp Gym at 6:00 p.m.
