EDINBURG — The new guys continue to come up clutch for the Bearkats this season.
Cameron Huefner hit a turnaround jumped at the buzzer to lift Sam Houston to a 67-65 walk-off victory over UTRGV on Wednesday night at the UTRGV Fieldhouse. The victory was the Bearkats' fourth in a row as they improved to 17-5 overall and 7-3 in WAC play.
Sam Houston led 63-54 with just under four minutes left in the game when the Vaqueros began to chip away at the lead. UTRGV went on a 6-0 run to make it a three-point game.
Huefner, who finished with 11 points, pushed it back to 65-60 with a layup at the 1:41 mark, but a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer by the Vaqueros tied it with 30 seconds to go.
Qua Grant, who led Sam Houston with 16 points, had a layup blocked with 4.2 seconds on the clock. The inbound pass went to Huefner along the right baseline, and he spun and delivered the game-winner that bounced in as the clock expired.
It was the second game-winning shot for the Bearkats this season.
Lamar Wilkerson, who scored 12 points, knocked down a 3 in the closing seconds to seal a 52-51 upset of Oklahoma in Sam Houston's season opener.
The Bearkats were up six early in the game after
Kaosi Ezeagu, who finished with 12 points and eight rebounds, threw down a dunk to make it 11-5 three minutes into the game. That quickly changed when the Vaqueros responded with an 11-0 run to take their first lead.
Huefner finally ended the scoring drought with a 3-pointer to make it 18-16 with 9:24 to go in the half. UTRGV pushed the lead back to five two minutes later, but Sam Houston closed out the half on a 12-4 run.
The Kats retook the lead on a 3 by Grant, and he connected again from long range and
Anthony Wrzeszcz hit a free throw to send Sam Houston into the break up 30-27.
The second half was back and forth as well with a couple of lead changes as neither team was able to create any separation.
Sam Houston stays on the road to face UT Arlington on Saturday at 4 p.m.
