Vaqueros run through Patriots in home opener

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EDINBURG — The UTRGV women’s basketball team opened the year with four-straight road games, but as the saying goes, there’s no place like home.

The Vaqueros ran through the Arlington Baptist Patriots 110-37 in their home opener Saturday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse in Edinburg to improve to 2-3 overall, opening an eight-game homestand with a bang. UTRGV’s 110 points tied a program record for the most scored in a single-game, which was set against Schreiner Nov. 21, 2006.

“It was a fun game today. We knew that Arlington Baptist was an NAIA program and a little under-matched, but all-in-all, we cut down on our turnovers, especially in the second half,” UTRGV head coach Lane Lord said. “Didn’t shoot as great as we wanted to in the second half, but I’ll tell you what, we played great, played hard and everybody got to play a lot of minutes. Real proud of these two (Charlotte O’Keefe and Chynell Mitchell) both having double-doubles. That’s big-time for us.”

The Vaqueros came roaring out of the gates with an 18-0 run to start the first quarter followed by another 18-0 run to begin the second. All 14 players saw 11 minutes or more and all registered points throughout the contest.

UTRGV used its size advantage to dominate the Patriots in the paint and on the boards as junior Charlotte O’Keefe and graduate student Chynell Mitchell both recorded double-doubles. O’Keefe scored 16 points and grabbed a team-high 13 rebounds, while Mitchell scored a team-high 17 points with 11 boards.

“I think we just took advantage of our size advantage. We both played really hard and just went after rebounds and put the ball in the basket,” O’Keefe said after recording her second-straight double-double and third-straight game with double digit rebounds.

“I feel like our size advantage really helped us tonight. I do feel like our guards really looked for us and we looked for our guards,” Mitchell said.

Multiple freshmen set career-high marks in points led by 16 from Elizabeth Romer, 12 from Kayla Lorenz and seven from Edinburg Vela alumna JaNai Coleman. Senior Edinburg High alumna Brianna Sanchez also posted a career-high eight points as the Vaqueros finished with 31 assists on 44 made baskets.

The UTRGV women’s basketball team is back in action at 4 p.m. Monday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse for a nonconference game against St. Mary’s. The UTRGV men’s basketball team will follow with a 6:30 p.m. tip-off against Le Moyne at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.

Tickets can be purchased at UTRGVTickets.com. Both games will also be broadcast on ESPN+.

“We’re playing a pretty good St. Mary’s team that actually came in here and beat us last year, so it’ll be a much tougher challenge for us, but it’ll be a great challenge,” Lord said. “I’m so excited to watch our men play. I’m pumped up for the double-header. In our conference this year we’ll get to play double-headers on Saturday’s so this will be a tune-up for that. It’s going to be fun to have the whole place rocking. We can watch the women’s game, men’s game, and we can all rally the Valley.”

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