EDINBURG, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team could not make it two wins in a row in its game on Saturday afternoon, playing down to the wire with UTRGV but ultimately falling by a final score of 58-47 in the first leg of the South Texas Showdown, presented by Rally Credit Union.
The opening part of Saturday's rivalry game ended up being very hotly contested, with the Islanders (2-10, 1-4 SLC) and Vaqueros (6-8, 3-2 SLC) drawing even through the first 10 minutes after playing to three different ties and a pair of lead changes that left things at 11 apiece once the dust settled. A&M-Corpus Christi started things off hot with six of the first eight points, putting this together on a pair of jumpers from redshirt senior
Trinity Slocum and senior
Samora Watson and a layup from sophomore
Rayna Williams, but this run was matched by an identical stretch by the hosts that closed the gap soon after. This was then followed by consecutive threes a couple minutes later, with junior
Asha Walker knocking one down for the visitors before this was answered on the very next possession to level things up again.
This shot would be the start of a 12-0 run stretching into the second quarter for UTRGV that put A&M-Corpus Christi in its first real hole of the day, but the team gave a counterpunch of its own, responding beautifully with 12 of the final 14 points before the half to not only get right back into things but also take regain a one-point lead heading into the break. The catalyst to this stretch ended up being a pair of three-pointers from graduate
Chelsea Wooten, with the guard first knocking down a shot from the Sam Williams Court logo well beyond the arc and then following that up with another triple from the corner as the buzzer sounded to send the Islanders' bench into a celebration heading back to the locker room.
Just like how the first half played out, however, the momentum swung right back the other way once the two teams re-emerged, as the Vaqueros kicked things off by going right back up ahead by five in just a couple minutes. The Islanders managed to settle things down after this thanks to six points in the third from redshirt sophomore
Torie Sevier, but when the fourth rolled around, they found themselves needing to make up six points in the final 10 minutes. Unfortunately, they could not accomplish this, falling victim to one last big swing by UTRGV to start the final frame that put them into a deficit that they could not manage to overcome.
In the final box score, the Islanders actually matched or exceeded the Vaqueros in many different places, shooting a better percentage from both the field and from three-point territory while grabbing just one fewer rebound than their foes from down south. The biggest swing factor ended up being at the free-throw line, though, as they attempted just three shots and made just one from the charity stripe as opposed to 15 makes on 22 shots by UTRGV, a difference that accounted for more than the 12-point margin on the scoreboard.
The best individual showing for A&M-Corpus Christi came from Watson, who led the team in scoring again with 15 points on 7-15 shooting. This continued her ongoing streak of games scoring in double figures, extending it to six in a row and 10 out of 12 games in total. After Watson, Walker was the next highest scorer with eight points on 3-5 shooting and 2-2 from behind the arc, and Sevier and Wooten both tallied six apiece. On the boards, Williams and senior
Marissa Shelton led the way with six apiece.
The Islanders will now try to regroup during the next part of their three-game road trip, getting back in action on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. for a game against East Texas A&M in Commerce.
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