🆚 University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
📆 Saturday – February 2, 2026
⏰ 6:30 pm CT
🏟️ UTRGV Fieldhouse - Edinburg, Texas
📈 LIVE STATS
📺 ESPN+
Houston Christian University continues its four-game road swing when it travels further South to take on University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on Monday night in Edinburg. Tip-off in the Valley is slated for 6:30 pm from the UTRGV Fieldhouse, the second meeting between the two schools in nine days.
HCU opened the road swing with a heartbreaking loss,
falling to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 73-71 at the Hilliard Center on Saturday afternoon. A back-and-forth affair saw the host Islanders create a little separation in the final stretch before a late rally by the Huskies was squelched.
D'Aundre Samuels hit three three-pointers as the Huskies pushed out to a 29-24 lead before taking a one-point advantage to the intermission, 35-34.
The two teams traded buckets for the first six-plus minutes of the second stanza before TAMUCC pulled in front 46-43 with 12:43 to play. The Huskies rallied back, and a three-pointer by Bartley provided a short-lived one-point lead, as once again, the hosts extended the lead to five by the midway point of the half.
A pair of charity shots by
Kylin Green pulled HCU to within one, 55-54 with just over seven to play, but the Islanders then put together a 14-6 run to take their largest lead of the afternoon, 69-60 with 2:09 to play. The Huskies wouldn't go quietly however, and a layup by
D'Aundre Samuels and a three from
Trent Johnson got HCU back to a one-possession deficit, 71-69. The Islanders split two pairs of free throws in the final seconds, but a key offensive rebound as the clock ran out stifled any last hopes for the Huskies.
The Huskies shot 52% in the first half, aided by a blistering of the nets from three-point range, going 8-10 in the opening frame. That would turn around in the second half, as the long-range shots didn't fall with HCU going just 2-11 in the second half, still finishing the game at a hearty 48%. HCU was 17-20 from the line but the host Islanders shot 55% for the afternoon and used a bloated 42-18 edge in paint points to hold off the Huskies.
HCU put five players in double-figure scoring on the day.
Demari Williams had 17 points as did
D'Aundre Samuels, his a season-high coming on 3-6 shooting from the arc.
Ryan Bartley matched a career-high with his four treys, finshing with 14 points, while
Demarco Bethea and
Trent Johnson each chipped in 10 points each. Bethea led the Huskies with six boards.
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 in early December 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.
The Huskies are currently 8-14 on the season and 4-9 in conference play, still tied with Incarnate Word a half-game behind Northwestern State for the final spot in the eight-team Southland Conference playoff field with now nine games still to play.
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 11.1 points to go with 4.0 boards while sitting second in the Southland Conference at 4.9 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. He had his third double-digit assist effort of the season with 10 in the last-second win over Northwestern State to become the first player with three in a season since Ricky Bennett in 2003-04. His six dimes vs. UIW put him at 104 to become the first HCU player to hit the century mark in a single-season since Ian DuBose had 111 during the 2019-20 campaign.
Since the Christmas break,
Demari Williams has provided a huge spark for the Huskies, first off the bench before then making his first start of the season at UIW.
He has scored in double-figures seven times in the 10 games since returning from the holiday. In those 10 games (nine starts) Williams leads the Huskies in scoring (14.8 ppg) while shooting 52% from the floor, 40% from deep and 80% from the charity stripe.
Williams had a then career-best 19 points in the loss at then No. 3 Iowa State in the first game back (Dec. 29) and broke it five days later with his first-ever 20-point night, scoring 22 in the loss to UIW (1/3). That high then fell as well in the homestand finale, as Williams led a huge rally against UIW (1/27) with his 24 points on a career-best 13-14 from the free throw line. Williams averaged 23 points and six rebounds on 15-23 (65%) shooting from the field in the two regular-season games against UIW.
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 (12.6) has passed
Elijah Brooks (11.5) for the team lead while
Demarco Bethea averages 10.8 and leads HCU on the backboards at 5.8 per in conference action. Bethea is one of seven players averaging 3.2 rebounds or more in SLC play. Green rounds out the foursome at 10.1 points per game, with
Trent Johnson (9.2) and
Ryan Bartley (8.9) right behind.
D'Aundre Samuels has started the last six games for HCU. On the four-game homestand, he averaged 11 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.0 steals. He is averaging 10.7 points, 2.5 caroms and 2.6 assists over this last six-game stretch.
Trent Johnson also had a strong homestand, opening it by going 7-8 from the floor and 3-4 from deep to set a new single game best with his 19 points in the win over East Texas A&M. That mark didn't last long as he registered his first career 20-piece in the win over UIW in the homestand finale.
HCU and UTRGV have now met 30 times with the Vaqueros leading the series 18-12 overall after claiming a
68-51 win in Houston on January 24, the lone loss for the Huskies on the four-game homestand. Marvin McGhee III and Koree Cotton led the way with 17 and 16 points respectively for the Vaqueros, who turned a five-point game with 13 minutes to play into a win going away.
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 after Saturday's 106-93 victory at Incarnate Word, has the Vaqueros even at 11-11 overall and now 7-6 in the Southland. The Vaqueros are currently tied for fifth in the league standings with New Orleans.
UTRGV is led by Cotton, a 6'6 junior transfer from Jacksonville State, who averages 14.2 ppg and 4.8 rebounds in Southland play. Filip Brankovic, a 6'8, 265 junior forward from Serbia, averages 13.2 and 4.5 rebounds in SLC action, while 5'10 sophomore guard Jaylen Washington is a do-it-all box checker with 10.7 points, 2.4 rebounds, team-best 4.2 assists and 1.1 steals in league play. McGhee III, a 6'4 grad transfer wing from Cal-Bakersfield, goes for nine points and 5.6 caroms. The Vaqueros are fourth in scoring offense in the league (75.0) and are now fifth in scoring defense (69.9).
The Huskies are 9-5 all-time in games played on Groundhog Day. The last outing came in 2023, a 94-76 road loss to Northwestern State, with the most recent victory coming in 2019, a 73-72 nail biter at home over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Following the game with UTRGV, Houston Christian will see the second half of the four-game road stretch next week when the Huskies head to "the Boot" for a pair of games. HCU will face Southeastern Louisiana next Saturday before capping the stretch away from Sharp with a Monday night tilt against McNeese.
#DawgsUp
