DENTON – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) women’s basketball team dropped the opening round game of the Women’s Basketball Invitational (WBI) 56-42 to the University of North Texas (UNT) on Wednesday at The Super Pit.

Junior Megan Johnson led UTRGV (18-15) with 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting while making a career-high five three-pointers. Graduate student Madison Northcutt added 10 points with six rebounds.

UNT (16-15) was led by Anisha George who scored 19 points on 9-of-13 shooting with Callie Owens chipping in 10 points with six rebounds.

UTRGV came out in the first quarter and took a 5-2 lead after a three-pointer by Johnson with 8:32 left in the quarter. Later in the first after a jumper by junior Makaela Mosley that gave UTRGV the 7-6 lead, UNT put together a 14-3 run to close out the quarter taking the 20-10 lead.

UNT extended its lead with a layup by Charlene Shepherd to open the scoring in the second quarter. Johnson answered with another three-point before a layup by George pushed the score to 24-13 with 8:21 left in the half.

Later in the quarter, Johnson knocked down another three-pointer to get UTRGV within 26-18 with 5:28 left in the half but UNT answered back with a three-pointer from Trena Mims. UTRGV got within seven at 31-24 after senior Krisynthia Sampson made a jumper at the buzzer as UNT took the lead into halftime.

Senior Idil Türk got UTRGV within five at 31-26 as she opened the scoring with a jumper but UNT went on a 9-0 run to push their lead to 40-26 with 4:50 left in the quarter. UTRGV answered with an 8-0 run of the their own that was capped by another three-pointer from Johnson that got UTRGV within 40-34 but UNT scored the final five points of the third to push their lead to 45-34.

Johnson opened the fourth with a jumper but UNT answered with back-to-back buckets that made it 49-36 with 6:36 left to play. UTRGV got within 49-40 after back-to-back buckets by Northcutt but UNT put the game away as they got their biggest lead of the night at 55-40 after a layup by Madie Townley.