EDINBURG — Sam Houston fought off a pesky UTRGV squad for a 67-61 victory at Bert Ogden Arena on Saturday.
The Bearkats (17-11 overall, 12-3 WAC) clinched at a top-five seed in the WAC Tournament with the win. The Vaqueros dropped to 7-20 on the season and 2-13 in league play.
Sam Houston led by double figures several times in the second half, but UTRGV wouldn't go away on its homecoming game. The Vaqueros cut the lead to 55-50 with five minutes to go in the game.
Jaden Ray knocked down two clutch 3-pointers to push the lead back to 10 at 64-54. The Bearkats' defense was able to close it out from there despite the Vaqueros going on a 5-0 run in the final 20 seconds.
Savion Flagg led Sam Houston with 17 points and eight rebounds, and Ray and
Demarkus Lampley each scored 10.
Donte Powers made some key shots to finish with eight points, and
Kuba Karwowski and
Javion May chipped in seven points apiece.
The Bearkats jumped out to a 20-6 lead in the first half thanks to some hot shooting.
Lampley and Flagg with back-to-back 3s, and Powers and Flagg both scored on consecutive layups to push Sam Houston's lead to 15-3 with a 10-0 run. Powers hit a step-back jumper and Lampley drilled another 3 to put the Kats up 14 with 12:40 to go in the period.
UTRGV was able to close the half on a 21-12 run to pull within 32-27 at the break. Sam Houston only managed one basket in the final four minutes.
The Bearkats will head to Stephen F. Austin Thursday for a showdown with the Lumberjacks at 6:30 p.m.
