PHOENIX, Ariz. – The Grand Canyon women's basketball team ended its five-game winning streak with a narrow 64-60 setback at WAC powerhouse New Mexico State on Thursday night, but the Lopes (7-9, 1-1 WAC) look to get back to work on Saturday, as GCU faces UTRGV (10-7, 0-2 WAC) in a 6 p.m. (MT) contest at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
GCU is an even 1-1 in conference play, as CSU Bakersfield and NMSU are the only two undefeated teams. GCU, Seattle U, Utah Valley and Kansas City are all 1-1, while UTRGV and Chicago State are winless in conference play.
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Scouting UTRGV
UTRGV is 10-7 on the year and a winless 0-2 in Western Athletic Conference play, as the Vaqueros are currently on a three-game losing streak. UTRGV led the conference after non-conference play with a strong 10-5 record, but has yet to produce since beginning WAC competition.
The Vaqueros started the season with a trio of wins over Concordia, Trinity and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi before suffering their first loss to (RV) Oklahoma State. UTRGV then won three in a row again over Texas Lutheran, Florida A&M and Prairie View A&M before falling at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Vaqueros defeated UMass, UTSA and North Dakota State for a third three-game streak before losing to Wisconsin and Texas Tech in back-to-back contests.
The Vaqueros split a pair of games by defeating Canisius and losing to (RV) USC to close out non-conference play. UTRGV fell to both UMKC and CSU Bakersfield so far in WAC play. Last season, UTRGV was 19-14 overall and 8-6 in conference competition. The Vaqueros lost in the first round of the WAC tournament to No. 5 UMKC, 77-69, but then were invited to play in the WBI, where they lasted two games.
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