EDINBURG – The UT Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros stormed back from being down 10 at the half on Saturday afternoon to take a 63-55 win at the UTRGV Fieldhouse over the East Texas A&M University men's basketball team.
 
The Lions were held without a field goal for the final 8:49 of the game, scoring just five free throws during that stretch. The loss eliminates East Texas A&M from contention into the Southland Conference tournament with an overall record of 11-20 and 6-15 against conference opponents.
 
The Vaqueros recorded their second straight win over the Lions in Edinburg and split the season series, while moving to 17-12 on the season and 13-8 in conference action. UTRGV did not record a made field goal in the final five minutes of the game as well.
 
The Lions started the game on a 11-2 run as they made their first six shots of the game. The Vaqueros only came within five of the Lions in the first half following that opening scoring burst.
 
With 1:23 left in the half, the Lions had a 34-21 lead, their highest in the game. UTRGV hit a three-pointer at the buzzer and then scored 14 of the first 21 points of the second half to make it a three-point game with 16:56 left.
 
The Lions shot 46 percent from the field, 5 for 13 from deep in the first half, while shooting 21 percent from the field and making just one three-pointer in the second half.
 
Following a timeout, the Lions scored the next four and went back up by seven, but managed to score just 10 points from that point of the game. The Vaqueros tied the game at 48, the first tie since the opening tip at the 9:17 mark and then with the game tied at 50, went on a 7-0 run to take their first lead of the game and did not surrender it.
 
Noah Pagotto (Wollongong, Australia) scored 18 points for the Lions along with eight rebounds, while both Gianni Hunt (Lakewood, Calif.) and Ronnie Harrison (Forney) scored 10 points each.
 
For the Vaqueros, four of their five starters reached double digits with Julien Gomez scoring 14 points.
 

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The Lions close out the season at A&M-Corpus Christi on Monday at 7 p.m.