2015–16 Texas–Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros women's basketball team

2015–16 Texas–Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros women's basketball
2015–16 Texas–Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros women's basketball
WNIT, First Round
Conference	Western Athletic Conference
Record	19–14 (9–5 WAC)
Head coach	Larry Tidwell (3rd season);
Assistant coaches	Gabe Henry; Anthony Anderson; Hannah Burleson;
Home arena	UTRGV Fieldhouse
	Seasons ← 2014–15 2016–17 →

The 2015–16 Texas–Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros women's basketball team represented the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley during the 2015–16 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. This was head coach Larry Tidwell's third season, but first under the UT-RGV label. The Vaqueros played their home games at the UTRGV Fieldhouse and were members of the Western Athletic Conference. This was the first season for UTRGV as an institution. Before the 2015–16 academic year, the University of Texas–Pan American and the University of Texas at Brownsville merged, forming the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. They finished the season 19–14 and 9–5 in WAC play to finish in second place. They advanced to the championship game of the WAC women's tournament where they lost to New Mexico State. They were invited to the Women's National Invitation Tournament where they lost in the first round to TCU.

2015–16 WAC women's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
New Mexico State †	13	–	1	.929	26	–	5	.839
UTRGV	9	–	5	.643	19	–	14	.576
Grand Canyon*	8	–	6	.571	16	–	15	.516
Utah Valley	8	–	6	.571	16	–	15	.516
Cal State Bakersfield	8	–	6	.571	12	–	19	.387
UMKC	5	–	9	.357	10	–	18	.357
Seattle	3	–	11	.214	9	–	21	.300
Chicago State	2	–	12	.143	4	–	25	.138

† 2016 WAC tournament winner As of March 18, 2016 * Grand Canyon ineligible for WAC Basketball Tournament as part of reclassification from Division II Rankings from AP poll

Previous season

The Broncs finished the season 19–15, 9–5 in final WAC play to finish in third place. They lost in the championship of the WAC Tournament to New Mexico State.

Departures

Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Year	Hometown	Notes
Troi Swain	1	G	5'6"	Freshman	Austin, TX	Transferred^[1]
Tonisha Walker	3	G	5'6"	Senior	Gardner, KS	Graduated
Stephanie Onyeje	12	G	5'5"	Freshman	Pflugerville, TX	Transferred^[1]
T'Ondria Nolen	14	G	5'7"	Senior	Wichita, KS	Graduated
Crystal Cardenas	20	G	5'7"	Freshman	Mercedes, TX
Brittany Bush	21	F	6'1"	Senior	Moline, IL	Graduated
Cha'zaye Wright	25	F	5'8"	Senior	DeSoto, TX	Graduated
Cherrell Price	33	F	5'11"	Senior	Midwest City, OK	Graduated

2015–16 media

For the first time in club history women's basketball games will be televised. 9 of 11 home games will air on TWCS (Ch 323), with 6 of the 9 games airing live. The other two home games will air on the TWCS Alternate Channel (Ch 825). Other games will air on WAC Digital Network or road teams video feeds.^[2]

Roster

2015–16 UTRGV Vaqueros women's basketball team

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Year	Previous school	Hometown
G	1	Bernesha Peters	5 ft 3 in (1.6 m)	Fr	Spring	Spring, TX
G/F	2	Yadira Ramirez	5 ft 11 in (1.8 m)	Fr	Hanks	El Paso, TX
G	3	Angela Villarreal	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)	Fr	Weslaco	Weslaco, TX
G	4	Idil Türk	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)	Fr	Bodwell	Istanbul, Turkey
F	5	Hildur Björg Kjartansdóttir	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	So	FSN	Stykkishólmur, Iceland
G	10	Michelle Marquez	5 ft 3 in (1.6 m)	Fr	Weslaco East	Weslaco, TX
G	11	Shawnte' Goff	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)	Jr	Copperas Cove	Copperas Cove, TX
G	15	Nichele Hyman	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)	Fr	Clovis	Clovis, NM
F	21	Anushka Maldonado	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	Jr	Yelm Odessa College	Roy, WA
G/F	22	Jada Bennett	5 ft 3 in (1.6 m)	RS Jr	Sherman North Florida	Sherman, TX
F	23	Micheline Mercelita	5 ft 11 in (1.8 m)	RS So	Edinburg	Edinburg, TX
G	24	Rickell Preston	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)	Sr	Hahnville	Killona, LA
G	30	Amanda Ramirez	5 ft 5 in (1.65 m)	RS Fr	Los Fresnos	Los Frenos, TX
F	32	Lile Havili	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	Jr	Granger Western Nebraska CC	Salt Lake City, UT
F	33	Mary Savoy	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	Jr	West Salem Midland College	Salem, OR
G	34	Sica Cuzic	5 ft 11 in (1.8 m)	Fr	Trinity International	Galati, Romania
F	43	Tristan Murphy	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	Fr	Stanwood	Stanwood, WA
F	44	Laura Van Tilburg	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	So	Weslaco	Weslaco, TX

Head coach

Larry Tidwell (Austin College)

Assistant coach(es)

Gabe Henry (Gonzaga)
Anthony Anderson (FIU)
Hannah Burleson (Texas A&M–Corpus Christi)

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible
(W) Walk-on

Injured
Current redshirt

Roster

Schedule and results

^[3]

Date time, TV	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
Non-conference regular season
11/13/2015* 2:30 pm	vs. East Carolina Islanders Classic	L 50–79	0–1	American Bank Center (76) Corpus Christi, TX
11/14/2015* 4:30 pm	vs. Cal Poly Islanders Classic	W 66–58	2–1	American Bank Center (146) Corpus Christi, TX
11/16/2015* 7:00 pm, TWCS	Concordia	W 90–44^[4]	2–1	UTRGV Fieldhouse (613) Edinburg, TX
11/18/2015* 7:00 pm, TWCS Alt	Texas Lutheran	W 90–38	3–1	UTRGV Fieldhouse (545) Edinburg, TX
11/21/2015* 1:00 pm, ESPN3	at Eastern Michigan	L 56–78	3–2	Convocation Center (443) Ypsilanti, MI
11/24/2015* 9:00 pm	at UC Santa Barbara	W 62–60	4–2	The Thunderdome (310) Santa Barbara, CA
11/28/2015* 2:00 pm	at TCU	L 67–71	4–3	University Recreation Center (1,543) Fort Worth, TX
12/01/2015* 7:00 pm	at Texas A&M–Corpus Christi	L 46–49	4–4	Dugan Wellness Center (613) Corpus Christi, TX
12/03/2015* 6:00 pm	at Incarnate Word	W 68–50	5–4	McDermott Center (206) San Antonio, TX
12/05/2015* 7:00 pm	at Oklahoma State	L 54–78	5–5	Gallagher-Iba Arena (2,332) Stillwater, OK
12/07/2015* 7:00 pm, Cox Kansas	at Kansas State	L 43–61	5–6	Bramlage Coliseum (3,872) Manhattan, KS
12/17/2015* 7:00 pm, TWCS Alt.	Incarnate Word	W 60–47	6–6	UTRGV Fieldhouse (711) Edinburg, TX
12/20/2015* 1:00 pm	at Houston	W 55–45	7–6	Hofheinz Pavilion (792) Houston, TX
12/30/2015* 7:00 pm, TWCS Alt.	Evangel	W 75–60	8–6	UTRGV Fieldhouse (544) Edinburg, TX
01/01/2016* 11:00 am	at Syracuse	L 32–91	8–7	Carrier Dome (442) Syracuse, NY
WAC regular season
01/07/2016 7:00 pm, TWCS	Grand Canyon	W 52–28	9–7 (1–0)	UTRGV Fieldhouse (445) Edinburg, TX
01/09/2016 7:00 pm, TWCS	Utah Valley	W 61–48	10–7 (2–0)	UTRGV Fieldhouse (611) Edinburg, TX
01/14/2016 7:00 pm	at Chicago State	W 64–56	11–7 (3–0)	Emil and Patricia Jones Convocation Center (100) Chicago, IL
01/16/2016 7:00 pm	at UMKC	W 62–53	12–7 (4–0)	Swinney Recreation Center (247) Kansas City, MO
01/21/2016 7:00 pm, TWCS	Cal State Bakersfield	W 60–46	13–7 (5–0)	UTRGV Fieldhouse (1,268) Edinburg, TX
01/23/2016 7:00 pm, TWCS*	Seattle	L 71–74	13–8 (5–1)	UTRGV Fieldhouse (1,108) Edinburg, TX
01/30/2016 7:00 pm, TWCS*	New Mexico State	L 57–68	13–9 (5–2)	UTRGV Fieldhouse (1,709) Edinburg, TX
02/04/2016 12:00 pm	at Utah Valley	L 57–71	13–10 (5–3)	PE Building (1,389) Orem, UT
02/06/2016 5:00 pm, Cox7	at Grand Canyon	W 68–66	14–10 (6–3)	GCU Arena (376) Phoenix, AZ
02/13/2016 1:00 pm, TWCS	UMKC	L 57–59	14–11 (6–4)	UTRGV Fieldhouse (668) Edinburg, TX
02/18/2016 9:00 pm	at Seattle	W 76–71	15–11 (7–4)	Connolly Center (262) Seattle, WA
02/20/2016 3:00 pm	at Cal State Bakersfield	L 66–80	15–12 (7–5)	Icardo Center (878) Bakersfield, CA
02/27/2016 7:00 pm, TWCS	Chicago State	W 78–56	16–12 (8–5)	UTRGV Fieldhouse (522) Edinburg, TX
03/05/2016 2:00 pm, FSSW+/ESPN3	at New Mexico State	W 66–55	17–12 (9–5)	Pan American Center (1,612) Las Cruces, NM
WAC Women's Tournament
03/09/2016 6:30 pm	vs. Chicago State Quarterfinals	W 60–52	18–12	Orleans Arena Paradise, NV
03/11/2016 4:30 pm	vs. Cal State Bakersfield Semifinals	W 73–72 ^2OT	19–12	Orleans Arena Paradise, NV
03/11/2016 3:00 pm, ESPNU	vs. New Mexico State Championship Game	L 53–80	19–13	Orleans Arena (777) Paradise, NV
WNIT
03/17/2016* 7:00 pm	at TCU First Round	L 73–97	19–14	Schollmaier Arena (910) Fort Worth, TX
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Central.

- Games will be televised on tape delay.

References

^ ^a ^b "Transfers add to UTPA turnover". The Monitor. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
^ "UTRGV Basketball Games to be telecast for the first time". The Monitor. Retrieved October 6, 2015.
^ "The Official Athletics Website of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley – 2015–16 Women's Basketball Schedule". Goutrgv.com. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
^ "UTRGV Women's Basketball Cruises In Home Opener". KZTV. Retrieved November 17, 2015.

[Transfers-1] "Transfers add to UTPA turnover". The Monitor. Retrieved March 30, 2015.

[2] "UTRGV Basketball Games to be telecast for the first time". The Monitor. Retrieved October 6, 2015.

[3] "The Official Athletics Website of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley – 2015–16 Women's Basketball Schedule". Goutrgv.com. Retrieved March 13, 2016.

[4] "UTRGV Women's Basketball Cruises In Home Opener". KZTV. Retrieved November 17, 2015.

[1]

2015–16 Texas–Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros women's basketball team

Contents

Previous season

Departures

2015–16 media

Roster

Schedule and results

See also

References