The UTRGV men’s basketball team took down Nicholls on Monday night to advance in the Southland Conference tournament.

The Vaqueros burst out to a hot start, leading 12-2 in the early going. Nicholls managed to quickly answer, vaulting themselves back into the game with a 12-0 run to take a 22-21 lead. The Vaqueros once again had a response, outscoring the Colonels 16-6 to close the half with Jaylen Washington and Filip Brankovic both ending the first half in double figures.

Nicholls never managed to get back into the game and only led for a total of 33 seconds from start to finish. The Vaqueros firmly controlled the matchup throughout, leading by as much as 25 points at one point in the second half.

Flip Brankovic finished as the Vaqueros' leading scorer on the night with 21 points, one of five UTRGV players to finish in double figures.

"Just proud of our guys tonight," said UTRGV head men's basketball coach Kahil Fennell. "Obviously a very tough opponent in the first round, when you have bye off in times of these conference tournaments, the team that played tonight prior is acclimated to the intensity and ferocity of knockout basketball and I think that's a little of an advantage to them. I thought our guys brought that from minute one. I thought we played very hard. I thought we played with discipline."

The Vaqueros will take the floor for the Southland Conference tournament semifinals on Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. in Lake Charles. They’ll face the tournament hosts McNeese for the right to go to Wednesday’s SLC championship game.