🆚 University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
📆 Saturday – January 24, 2026
⏰ 7 pm CT
🏟️ Sharp Gymnasium - Houston, Texas
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🗒️ Game PROGRAM   
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🆚 University of the Incarnate Word
📆 Monday – January 26, 2026
⏰ 7 pm CT
🏟️ Sharp Gymnasium - Houston, Texas
📈 LIVE STATS               
📺 ESPN+       
🗒️ Game PROGRAM  (Sunday)
🗒️ Game NOTES  (Sunday)
 
Houston Christian University hits the back leg of its season-long four-game homestand on Saturday, while also marking the midway point of the 22-game Southland Conference schedule when it takes on University of Texas Rio Grande Valley for the first time this season. The Huskies and Vaqueros are slated for a 3:30 pm tip-off as the second half of twin-bill in Sharp Gymnasium with the women, who kick off the day's action at 1 pm. HCU is scheduled to take on University of the Incarnate Word on Monday night to close its stay at home, the second meeting of the season between the two long-time rivals.
 
Kylin Green's layup with 4.3 seconds remaining capped a late rally and sent a boisterous Sharp Gymnasium crowd into a frenzy as HCU pulled out a thrilling 82-80 victory over Northwestern State University on Monday night in its most recent outing. The Huskies trailed by 10 with nine minutes to play before Green's late theatrics finished off the barn-burner and gave the Huskies their second straight win.
 
Northwestern State took a three-point lead at the break after leading by as many as 10 in the first half.  The Demons would then recapture the 10-point edge after four points from Micah Thomas, taking a 65-55 lead with 10 to play. Back-to-back three-balls by Trent Johnson were followed by one from Ryan Bartley, making it a one-point game as the clock crept under six minutes.
 
The NSU lead grew back to six with three minutes to play, but the Huskies would hold the visitors to just two points over that final stretch. Three's from Johnson and D'Aundre Samuels were chased by a pair of charity shots from Green, giving the Huskies an 80-79 lead. Thomas split a pair to tie the game with 16 seconds, setting up late heroics by Green. Taking the ball at the top of the key, Green drove right before spinning back inside and scooping up a right-handed layup while drawing the harm, giving the Huskies a two-point advantage, 82-80 with 4.3 seconds on the clock.
 
HCU finished the game at a season-high 60% from both the field and the arc, going 27-45 from the floor and knocking down 12-20 from long range. NSU went for 56% from the field, but scored just two free throws during the final three-minute stretch of the game. The Huskies put four players in double-digit scoring, led by Demari Williams with 16. Green's game-winner gave him 14 points and he also dished out 10 assists to just one turnover. Johnson hit four three's and Bartley hit two as the pair each put in a dozen points, while Demarco Bethea and Mambourou Mara each chipped in nine. Samuels had eight points and a team-high seven caroms.
 
Craig Doty, the ninth head coach in program history, is now in his second season at the helm after guiding HCU to a 12-20 overall mark and 9-11 ledger in Southland Conference action in 2024-25. It was announced earlier in the week that Doty has signed a contract extension through the 2029-30 season. 
 
The Huskies doubled their success rate from the previous season, going from six total wins to 12 and from four victories to nine in conference play, finishing seventh in the league after being picked to finish last. HCU advanced to the Southland Tournament and saw Bryson Dawkins named All-Conference as just the second player in program history to pick up SLC First Team honors.
 
Elijah Brooks, who missed the first four games of the season and has not played since returning from the Christmas break, still leads HCU at 12.3 points per night while also chipping in 4.5 boards, 3.1 assists and 1.5 steals per game.
 
Kylin Green is just behind him at 11.8 points to go with 4.2 boards while sitting second in the Southland Conference at 5.1 assists per night. He had a career-high 24 points in the loss over Thanksgiving week to Bellarmine and also registered a career-best 13 assists in the victory over ULM on November 13, the most in a game for HCU since Mike Moss had 13 against Chicago State in 2011.
 
Green flirted with a triple-double in the overtime home loss to Southeastern, finishing with eight points, nine boards and 10 assists, and posted 10 assists or more for the third time this season in the win over Northwestern State. He is the first player to post three double-digit assist games in a single season since Ricky Bennett in 2003-04.  
 
Demari Williams had provided a huge spark for the Huskies since the Christmas break, first coming off the bench before making his first start of the season at UIW.  Williams had what was a career-best 19 points in the loss at then No. 3 Iowa State before breaking it five days later with his first-ever 20-piece, a 22-point outing in the loss to UIW. Post holidays, Williams has scored in double-figures five times in seven outings, and in those seven games (six starts) he is leading the Huskies in scoring (14.1) while shooting 50% from the floor and 41% from deep.
 
While putting just two players in double-digit scoring in all games, the Huskies boasts a quartet of players notching double-figures in conference play. Williams has tied Elijah Brooks for the team lead at 11.5, while Green is now at 11.1 points per. Demarco Bethea averages 10.4 while leading HCU on the backboards at 5.1 per in conference action, and is the leader of six players averaging 3.4 rebounds or more in SLC play.
 
D'Aundre Samuels has stepped into the starting lineup over the last three contests, averaging 8.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.7 steals per game over that span. Trent Johnson has had a hot homestand thus far, posting career-highs of 19 points and six assists in the win over East Texas A&M, and going 7-9 from deep in the first two games of the four-game stay in Sharp.
 
HCU and UTRGV have met 29 times all-time with the Vaqueros leading the series 17-12 overall. The last dozen meetings in the series have been split evenly, including last year, when each team held serve on its own hardwood. The Huskies took a 66-57 victory on January 18 in Houston with the Vaqueros responding with a 76-52 win in Edinburg on February 15.
 
This is the third different conference that the two schools will have squared off in. The Huskies and then Pan American University were charter members of the Trans America Athletic Conference in 1978 and members together for one season. It would be 29 years before the two became league foes once again in the Great West Conference from 2009-13 when the Broncs were known as the University of Texas-Pan American. UTRGV is now in its second season in the Southland.
 
Kahil Fennell is now in his second season at the helm in the Valley and has the Vaqueros at 8-11 overall and 4-6 in the Southland. UTRGV has won both of its games last weekend, capturing three-point wins over then league-leading McNeese 79-76 as well as Southeastern 68-65. The Vaqueros currently sit one game ahead of the Huskies in the league standings, and are tied with Incarnate Word and Northwestern State in seventh for the final two playoff spots as the midway point of the conference slate hits.
 
UTRGV is led by Koree Cotton, a 6'6 junior transfer from Jacksonville State, who averages 13.6 ppg and 5.5 rebounds in Southland play. Filip Brankovic, a 6'8, 265 junior forward from Serbia, averages 14 and five, while 5'10 sophomore guard Jaylen Washington chips in 10.8 points, 2.6 rebounds and a team-best 4.1 assists. Marvin McGhees III, a 6'4 grad transfer wing from Cal-Bakersfield, rounds out the double-digit quartet at 10.2 points. The Vaqueros rank sixth in the league in both scoring (74.3) and defense (70.5).
 
HCU and UIW renew their long-standing rivalry on Monday, the most second-most played series in program history. The Cardinals now have a 27-16 edge in the all-time series after a 73-56 victory over the Huskies at the McDermott Center in San Antonio earlier in the month. HCU has won 14 of the last 21 meetings, and still leads the series 15-12 since the two schools joined the Southland.
 
Head Coach Shane Heirman is in his third year at the helm in the Alamo City, and has the Cardinals sitting at 9-10 overall and 4-6 in conference play prior to their game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday in San Antonio.
 
The Cardinals are third in the Southland in scoring at 76.2 points per game and sit middle of the pack defensively, giving up 71.7 per. Davion Bailey (18.3 ppg) and Tahj Staveskie (17.5 ppg) continue to be the most potent combo in the league, as they are first and second in scoring overall in the conference.
 
Bailey, a 6'4 senior guard, is second in the league in minutes played (34.2) and ranks first in three's per game (3.2) and fourth in three-point percentage (35%). Staveskie a 6'1 graduate transfer guard from Cleveland State, is averaging 4.4 rebounds and ranks fourth in the conference in assists with 4.5 helpers per game. He leads the SLC in minutes (35.2) while ranking seventh in three's made per game at 2.2 an outing.
 
6'7 junior forward Jordan Pyke is averaging 11.7 points overall and 5.4 boards. Harold Woods, a 6'5 senior transfer from Northeastern leads the Cardinals in rebounding at 7.0 per game, fifth best in the Southland.
 
HCU holds a 7-3 record in all-time games played on January 24 with the last occurrence coming in 2018 during a 102-86 victory over Incarnate Word. On January 26, the Huskies have a 10-8 all-time mark, having last played in 2023 in an 82-63 defeat at Northwestern State. HCU last won on this date in 2017, an 83-80 home win over Nicholls.
 
Houston Christian University concludes the homestand against UIW on Monday night with tip-off slated for 7 pm. The Huskies will then hit the highways for four straight games, the second-longest road stretch of the season. HCU's road travails begin on Saturday, January 31 when the Huskies head down the coastline for a second meeting of the season with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
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