SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – UT Rio Grande Valley came into the McDermott Center and handed the University of the Incarnate Word women's basketball their second loss of the season with a 68-50 win Thursday night.

The game started off slowly with both teams struggling to get any points, but the Vaqueros (5-4) finally got in a rhythm and never looked back. They outscored the Cardinals (3-2) 17-10 in the first quarter, but the Cardinals made a nice run in the second quarter to cut the lead to two points at 21-19.  UTRGV followed with a 10-0 run and went into halftime with 39-24 lead.

The Cardinals got back into the game in the third quarter pulling to within seven points after a three-pointer by Celia Garcia Paunero (Valladolid, Spain/Otero JC) with 4:33 remaining in the quarter.  UIW trailed by 10 points at the end of the quarter.

In the fourth quarter the Cardinals were never able to get the lead under double figures and Shawnte' Goff finally started to hit some shot after starting the game 3-for-17 from the field for the Vaqueros.  Goff and Mary Savoy were too much for UIW. Goff led all scorers with 16 points and added five rebounds and two assists. Savoy collected a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds, shooting 7-of-10 from the field.

The Cardinals shot 31.6 percent from the field, made 4-of-19 from three-point range and were 10-for-19 at the foul line.  Brianna Williams (Wylie/Mesquite HS) led UIW with 16 points and seven rebounds on the night. She was 2-of-4 from the three point arc and shot 50 percent from the field (6-12). Yvonne Maosa (Arlington/Mansfield HS) added eight points and seven rebounds in the loss.
           
The Vaqueros shot 39.7 percent from the field, made 2-of-16 from three-point range and were 16-of-23 at the foul line.  In addition to Savoy and Goff, Rickell Preston chipped in with 12 points and five rebounds.

UTRGV took advantage by scoring 21 points coming off 16 Cardinal turnovers in the game. The Vaqueros had 10 steals compared to only three for UIW.

The Cardinals are back in action this Saturday as they make a short drive to Trinity to face the D3hoops.com 19^th ranked Tigers at 4 p.m.
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