Lopes drops UTRGV

The Vaqueros Women’s Basketball Team fell to Grand Canyon University at home tonight, 66-40, setting their record to 6-20 overall and 5-12 in the Western Athletic Conference.

The Lopes currently stand at 24-5 overall and 16-2 in conference.

The first quarter had the Lopes and UTRGV trading points evenly, followed by the Lopes taking a small 21-15 lead.

The second quarter started off slow with only 4 points being scored by the halfway point.

The pace started to pick up a little after a timeout from GCU, and they ended the second quarter in the lead with 31-19.

The third quarter was a similar story with the Lopes slowly growing their lead to 48-28.

The final quarter had UTRGV put up a fight, scoring 18 points, but GCU had too much of a lead and won 66-40.

GCU graduate forward Laura Erikstrup led her team with 22 points, two rebounds and one block.

Junior guard Kade Hackerot led the Vaqueros with 12 points, seven rebounds, two steals and an assist.

UTRGV Head coach Lane Lord said GCU was tied for first in the WAC rankings for a reason.

“They’re really really talented,” Lord said. “Excellent speed, but the most impressive thing is how physical they are. It’s even hard to even cut or move or try to get from A to B, they’re just so physical. … They won 25 games for a reason and that’s because of their defense.”

Sophomore forward Charlotte O’Keefe put up 7 points, four rebounds and two blocks.

Lord said they tried to give all the players a chance to play.

“We were just trying to give everybody minutes in the game,” he said. “… Everybody kind of played a little bit tonight. We got two girls with six and two minutes, but other than that the other nine girls played over 10 minutes.”

Senior forward Zariah Sango put up seven rebounds, 3 points and one block.

Lord said the team would keep fighting in its three upcoming games.

“We’re at the point where we just got to keep fighting,” he said. “Keep getting up and we probably need to get at least two of the next three [games] to have a chance to get to the tournament. It’s an uphill battle, but we’re certainly going to continue fighting.”

Lord said the next game against California Baptist University would be different due to their style focusing on scoring instead of defense.

“They do play defense obviously, but it’s all about offense for Cal Baptist,” he said. “… We’re gonna have to mix up our defenses and just try to distract them because they are so solid offensively.”

The Vaqueros currently stand tied with Southern Utah University in 8th place but still have a chance to make it into the tournament.

Next up for the Vaqueros is a home game against California Baptist University at 2 p.m. Saturday.

The Vaqueros now have three games left until the start of the first round of the WAC Championship.