Monthly Archives: February 2021

UTSA takes two from FAU, extends winning streak to four

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Eric Parrish. UTSA beat Florida Atlantic 86-75 at the Convocation Center on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021, in the second game of a Conference USA men's college basketball back-to-back. - photo by Joe Alexander

Eric Parrish came off the bench to produce 15 points and 5 rebounds Saturday as UTSA cruised past Florida Atlantic, 86-75. – Photo by Joe Alexander

The dance skills for UTSA men’s basketball coach Steve Henson are questionable, at best.

But that didn’t stop him from trying to improvise on Saturday afternoon when he walked into the locker room and saw that his players were celebrating their fourth straight victory, an 86-75 triumph at home over the Florida Atlantic University Owls.

Erik Czumbel. UTSA beat Florida Atlantic 86-75 at the Convocation Center on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021, in the second game of a Conference USA men's college basketball back-to-back. - photo by Joe Alexander

Erik Czumbel scored 11 off the bench for the Roadrunners, who improved to 12-9 on the season and 8-6 in Conference USA. — Photo by Joe Alexander

“You could tell on his face,” UTSA forward Parrish said. “He came in, jumping and moving. I don’t see him move too much like that. Not even at practice.”

Later, Henson confirmed that he let loose with some emotion.

“Oh, we got to celebrate ’em,” the coach said. “Gosh. You know, it’s hard to win college basketball games.”

On Friday night, a Conference USA weekend series against FAU started with UTSA winning 84-80 in a fast-paced game. The pace slowed substantially on Saturday afternoon as athletes on both sides struggled with the quick turnaround.

But UTSA got the best of it with five players in double figures and the team shooting 50 percent from the field on an FAU squad trying to find answers in the absence of leading scorer Jailyn Ingram.

Without Ingram, a 6-foot-7 forward, the Owls produced only a few good stretches in the game. In the early going, midway through the first half, they led by three. At that point, senior guard Jhivvan Jackson and his teammates seized control and never really let up the rest of the afternoon.

Keaton Wallace. UTSA beat Florida Atlantic 86-75 at the Convocation Center on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021, in the second game of a Conference USA men's college basketball back-to-back. - photo by Joe Alexander

Senior Keaton Wallace, the No. 2 scorer in school history, had 14 points on 5 of 10 shooting against the Owls. — Photo by Joe Alexander

They surged into a seven-point lead at halftime. After intermission, they popped it open to 15 at one point and led by double digits almost constantly.

“We did a lot of good things two days in a row,” Henson said. “We’re on a roll here right now. We got to enjoy those. If I could dance, I would have danced, but I can’t, so we just jumped around a little bit. By the time I get in there, they always usually have celebrated a little on their own.

“You know, we got to ride this out. We’ve got different guys stepping up.”

With Jackson scoring 20 points to become the No. 2 all-time scorer in Conference USA and No. 86 in NCAA history, the Roadrunners completed a four-week run to jump from last place to fourth in the C-USA West division.

The Roadrunners haven’t won four in a row since a seven-game streak in 2018-19. The previous streak started in non conference, in December of 2018, and it carried into January of 2019, when they won first four games on the conference schedule.

This time, rolling along with a 7-1 record in the last four weeks feels especially sweet, especially after the squad started off with a 1-5 record in conference.

“Different guys are feeling good,” Henson said. “Our team’s feeling good.”

Records

UTSA 12-9, 8-6
FAU 8-9, 3-5

Coming up

UTSA at Charlotte, Friday, 5 p.m.
UTSA at Charlotte, Saturday, 3 p.m.

Notable

The Roadrunners complete the regular season with two games in Charlotte (9-11, 5-7), followed by two at home against the UAB Blazers (16-4, 9-3). The games against UAB are Feb. 26-27, dates that potentially mark the last two home games for UTSA senior stars Jhivvan Jackson and Keaton Wallace, the Nos. 1 and 2 scorers in school history.

Jhivvan Jackson. UTSA beat Florida Atlantic 86-75 at the Convocation Center on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021, in the second game of a Conference USA men's college basketball back-to-back. - photo by Joe Alexander

Jhivvan Jackson is 86th in NCAA Division I history and 2nd in the C-USA in career scoring with 2,461 points. — Photo by Joe Alexander

Jackson has 2,461 points in his career, and Wallace 1,964.

Jackson entered the weekend series against FAU with 2,411 and ranked No. 101 on the all-time NCAA Division I career scoring list. He scored 30 on Friday night and added a team-high 20 on Saturday, giving him 2,461, tied for 86th with 1950s-era La Salle star Tom Gola.

By moving into the NCAA’s Top 100 this weekend, Jackson passed the likes of Steve Alford, Chris Mullin, Glen Rice, Vernon Maxwell and Christian Laettner on the list. Now ranked No. 2 in C-USA, he bested former UTEP star Stefon Jackson, who produced 2,456 points in four seasons at UTEP through the 2008-09 season.

Television announces constantly talk about Jackson’s scoring prowess.

But his all-around game right now is as good as ever. On Saturday, for instance, he hit 8 of 13 shots from the field. Jackson also passed for nine assists and grabbed seven rebounds. For the weekend, he ran the team at point guard, hit 19 of 34 from the field and averaged 7.5 assists and 6.5 rebounds.

FAU played Saturday without Ingram, who averages 13.6 points per game.

Possibly limited by injury, he was held to 0-for-5 shooting on Friday night. UTSA forward Adrian Rodriguez (knee) sat out his second straight game Saturday against FAU. It’s not certain whether he will play at Charlotte but Coach Henson is hopeful.

UTSA vs. Florida Atlantic: Saturday video and photo highlights

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UTSA beat Florida Atlantic 86-75 at the Convocation Center on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021, in the second game of a Conference USA men’s college basketball back-to-back.

Roadrunners hang on to beat FAU for third straight win

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Jhivvan Jackson. UTSA beat Florida Atlantic 84-80 on Friday, Feb. 12, 2021, in the first game of a Conference USA back-to-back. - photo by Joe Alexander

Jhivvan Jackson played the pick and roll to near perfection as he scored 30 points against Florida Atlantic University. With the performance, Jackson moved up to 93rd on the NCAA Division I career scoring list with 2,441 points, one ahead of former St. John’s great Chris Mullin. — Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA coach Steve Henson likes to think some games come down to winning the “toughness battles.”

The Roadrunners won enough of them down the stretch Friday night and held on to defeat the Florida Atlantic University Owls, 84-80, for their third straight victory.

“Early in the second half, they came right at us,” Henson said. “Just drove it at us. (Grabbed) offensive rebounds. They won all the toughness battles there for several minutes. Drew a bunch of fouls on us. Looked up and we got five team fouls early in the second half. So we really challenged our guys in the one timeout to just play tougher.”

Jacob Germany. UTSA beat Florida Atlantic 84-80 on Friday, Feb. 12, 2021, in the first game of a Conference USA back-to-back. - photo by Joe Alexander

Jacob Germany battled with 6-foot-11 FAU center Karlis Silins and came up big with a career-high 26 points and 12 rebounds. It was his fifth career double double. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Boosted by senior guard Jhivvan Jackson, who scored 30 points, and sophomore center Jacob Germany, who produced a career-high 26 points and 12 rebounds, UTSA stayed on a hot roll that they’ve kept alive for four straight weekends.

The Roadrunners built an early lead and survived 13 three-pointers by the Owls, moving to 6-1 in their last seven games.

Feeling confident, they’ll try to make it four straight wins and seven out of eight when they host the Owls in Saturday’s Game 2 of a Conference USA home series at the Convocation Center.

At the moment, it’s only Feb. 12, but with different players and combinations contributing each night, it feels like March can’t come soon enough for the Roadrunners, who are averaging 87 points in their last three.

“Each game we get in the win column, that’s just more fuel to the fire,” said Germany, who hit 13 of 21 from the field. “We’re going to try to be one of those teams that gets hot at the right time and just makes a run deep in the conference tournament.”

Records

UTSA 11-9, 7-6
Florida Atlantic 8-8, 3-4

Coming up

Florida Atlantic at UTSA, Saturday at 3 p.m.

Top 100 breakthrough

Jackson was masterful with 11-for-21 shooting, not to mention six assists and six rebounds, on a night when perhaps the best player in program history moved into the top 100 in career scoring on the all-time NCAA Division I list.

By hitting for 30, the 6-foot native of Puerto Rico increased his school-leading career total to 2,441 points, which moved him into 93rd place all time in Division I, one point ahead of former St. John’s University star Chris Mullin.

Jackson’s mid-range game has been particularly good lately.

“Usually, a lot of teams limit my three-point shooting,” Jackson said. “And they always kind of have two guys on me. But I knew today, that team switches a lot. I knew I’d have to use the five (the center, for screens) a lot, and Jacob set some good screens for me.

“I had a couple of good looks. You know, I had a couple of good looks on the floaters and a couple of curls that I missed, but those shots, coach would love for me to take, you know, instead of a hard three. I don’t usually miss mid-range. Growing up, that’s the shot I worked on all the time.”

Down to the wire

As it turned out, the Roadrunners needed just about everything that Jackson and Germany could give them.

The Owls converted on a four-point play with eight seconds left when Kenan Blackshear knocked down a three out of the corner, got fouled, and hit a free throw to make it 82-80.

Keaton Wallace hit two free throws with six seconds left to ice it.

“Once again, we brought too much drama into it,” Henson said. “Think we had a nine-point lead real late and didn’t quite close it out the way you need to. That was a little disappointing. But there were a lot of positives.”

Halftime: UTSA 44, FAU 41

FAU hadn’t played a game in 20 days because of virus interruptions, and it showed early. The Owls were erratic on the offensive end, leading to some easy baskets for the Roadrunners, who jumped out to a 15-4 lead.

Germany hit five shots in the streak, including a variety of hooks, jumpers and layups.

UTSA vs. Florida Atlantic: Friday video and photo highlights

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UTSA beat Florida Atlantic 84-80 on Friday, Feb. 12, 2021, in the first game of a Conference USA back-to-back.

UTSA’s Keaton Wallace takes pride in career achievement

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Keaton Wallace. UTSA beat UTEP 86-79 in a Conference USA game on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021 at the UTSA Convocation Center. - photo by Joe Alexander

Senior guard Keaton Wallace will lead the UTSA Roadrunners into a weekend home series against the FAU Owls. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Senior guard Keaton Wallace says he was oblivious to the news last weekend that he had passed a former UTSA great and moved into second place on the school’s all-time scoring list.

“It’s really crazy, because I never knew until I came in on Monday … ” Wallace said. “They told me that I was second. I was shocked. I didn’t even know.”

For the record, Jhivvan Jackson leads the UTSA list with 2,411 points, followed by Wallace, Jackson’s teammate of the past four years, with 1,944, and Devin Brown with 1,922.

Brown, a shooting guard, amassed his point totals from 1998-2002 and went on to play in the NBA. He held the record for 18 seasons until Jackson broke it late last year.

Wallace eclipsed Brown’s mark last Friday when he scored a season-high 33 points in an 87-80 victory at Florida International. The former prep standout at Richardson added to his career total with 16 in a 90-47 victory at FIU on Saturday.

“You know, things like that don’t happen very often,” Wallace said. “Devin Brown, he’s a great player. I seen some of his tape. He could score. Just for two guys, me and Jhivvan, to play on the same team at the same time and do things like that, that’s big time. That speaks volumes. I’m going to keep working. Try to keep getting better.”

As Wallace works on his own game, the Roadrunners are also improving as a team. They have won five of their last six leading into a two-game, Conference USA home series this week against Florida Atlantic. The games are set for Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Convocation Center.

If Wallace has learned anything in four years at UTSA, he knows it’s nice to start playing well in February, to lay the groundwork for a trip to the C-USA tournament in March.

“We’re feeling good about finishing strong in the conference,” Wallace. “I think we have six more games. Those six games can be a great momentum change for us going into the conference tournament. We just have to handle our business and do what we need to do. Come in with a positive mindset going into the conference tournament.”

UTSA is emphasizing perimeter defense against the Owls.

“I think we need to guard the three a little bit better,” he said. “I know they have a couple of three-point shooters, things like that. If the defense is all on the same page and we execute our schemes, make sure we don’t give up any offensive rebounds or any second-chance points, we’ll have a better chance at winning the game.”

Having Wallace at peak form also will help. Last weekend, with UTSA facing games critical to its long-term aspirations, the 6-foot-3 left-hander hit 12 of 19 from the field on Friday and 6 of 13 on Saturday.

Coming up

FAU at UTSA, Friday at 6 p.m.
FAU at UTSA, Saturday at 3 p.m.

Records

FAU 8-7, 3-3
UTSA 10-9, 6-6

Steve Henson on Lew Hill: ‘We lost a good coach and a great man’

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Steve Henson’s emotions ranged from elation to devastation — all within 24 hours. On Saturday, the UTSA coach felt a surge of energy when his team romped to a 90-47 victory to complete a two-game road sweep at Florida International.

But by Sunday evening, after the team had returned from its triumphant trip to Miami, he felt only sadness after learning that a long-time friend in the coaching fraternity had passed away.

Steve Henson. UTSA beat Southern Miss 70-64 in Conference USA action at the Convocation Center on Friday, Jan. 22, 2021. - photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA head coach Steve Henson — Photo by Joe Alexander

With his surging Roadrunners preparing for a weekend home series against Florida Atlantic, Henson on Tuesday talked to reporters on a zoom call about the death of UT Rio Grande Valley coach Lew Hill.

“Probably be hard for me to talk about it very much, to be honest,” Henson said. “Just devastating news on Sunday.”

Hill, 55, died a day after coaching his last game. In his fifth season as coach of the Vaqueros, his team lost 77-75 on Saturday night at Texas Southern. School officials announced the coach’s death Sunday night. The cause of death wasn’t known.

The coach’s passing hit his friends at UTSA hard.

Henson had worked for 12 years with Hill on Lon Kruger-led coaching staffs at UNLV and Oklahoma. Assistant Mike Peck had been with Hill on the UNLV staff. Another UTSA assistant, Scott Thompson, worked under Kruger and with Henson and Hill for five seasons with the Sooners, highlighted by a 2016 trip to the Final Four in Houston.

“Twelve years together,” Henson said. “Very, very good friends. He was a good man. It’s really, really heartbreaking. Stayed in very close contact with him. Talked to him pretty regularly. He was dealing with some health issues. Breaks my heart. To watch him … continue to grow, he was such a mentor to the players.

“He had a reputation as a very good recruiter, which he was.

“But after the kids landed in our programs at UNLV and Oklahoma, he was terrific mentoring them. He was a father figure to those who needed a father figure. He grew as a coach. He grew as a man … It’s heartbreaking. We lost a good coach and a great man. Our prayers are with (his wife) Renee and all of his family.”

After the 2015-16 season, Henson, Peck and Thompson came to UTSA, while Hill got the head coaching job at UT Rio Grande Valley.

Hill made five-win improvements in each of his first three years, culminating with a 20-win season in 2018-19 that saw the Vaqueros win an NCAA Division I postseason games for the first time while hosting two rounds of the CIT.

For his efforts, Hill was a finalist for the 2019 Ben Jobe Award, presented annually to the top minority coach in Division I men’s basketball. In total, the Vaqueros made two postseason appearances under Hill, including an appearance in the 2018 CBI.

Jackson breaks field goal record as UTSA sweeps in Miami

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Jhivvan Jackson scored a team-high 27 points as UTSA beat Our Lady of the Lake 102-70 on Sunday, Dec. 20, 2020, at the UTSA Convocation Center. - photo by Joe Alexander

Jhivvan Jackson, seen here in a game from last December, increased his career field goal total to a C-USA record 813 when hit seven on Saturday in a 90-47 victory at Florida International. – photo by Joe Alexander


Senior guard Jhivvan Jackson broke the Conference USA record for field goals in a career, and the UTSA Roadrunners earned their first C-USA road sweep of the season Saturday as they blew out the slumping Florida International Panthers 90-47 in Miami.

A native of Bayamon, Puerto Rico, Jackson also hit another career milestone by scoring 22 points to move him past 2,400 since he joined Roadrunners in 2017-18 out of Euless Trinity High School.

Humbled by a slow start to the season, UTSA has won two straight on the road, has forged a 5-1 record in its last six in C-USA and has rekindled passions about competing in March.

“We talked about the opportunity that’s ahead of us,” UTSA coach Steve Henson told the team’s radio broadcast. “We started out 1-5 (in conference). Now we’ve won four out of five or five out of six or whatever it is.

“Trending in the right direction. Now we’re going to play four of our next six at home. We’re very healthy. Our spirits are good. I think we’re in a position to make a run here.”

Records

FIU 9-12, 2-10
UTSA 10-9, 6-6

Coming up

Florida Atlantic at UTSA, 6 p.m. Friday
Florida Atlantic at UTSA, 3 p.m. Saturday

Notable

Jackson finished with 22 points on 7 of 11 shooting, including four 3-pointers. He knocked down three 3-pointers and scored 16 of UTSA’s 18 points in a run at the end of the first half. With the performance, he pushed his career total in field goals to 813, breaking the previous record of 810 held by UTEP’s Stefon Jackson from 2006-09. Jhivvan Jackson also increased his career scoring total to 2,411, which boosts him to 101st on the all-time Division I scoring list, according to sports-reference.com.

No. 1 in Latin America?

It is possible, pending a further review of records, that Jackson ranks first in Division I career scoring among players who were born in Latin America. Former Dallas Mavericks great J.J. Barea, who, like Jackson, was born in Puerto Rico, finished his four-year career at Northeastern in 2006 with 2,290 points.

Playing as a team

Coming into Miami, the Roadrunners were 0-11 on the road since February of last season. They were 0-8 this season. Now they’ve broken through with two of their best road showings. They beat FIU 87-80 on Friday night and followed with the 90-47 rout. The 43-point margin of victory against the bedraggled Panthers was their widest of the year.

Eleven players scored, and seven produced more than one field goal. For the second straight game, they shot better than 50 percent from the field (51.6). Defensively, they held FIU to 34.7 percent and gave up their fewest points in any game. Both Keaton Wallace and Eric Parrish scored 16 points. Parrish, a transfer from Nevada in his first year at UTSA, hit six of six shots from the field. He had nine points and eight rebounds off the bench Friday.

Wallace moves into No. 2 on UTSA’s all-time scoring list

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Keaton Wallace. UTSA beat Southern Miss 78-72 in Conference USA action at the Convocation Center on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021. - photo by Joe Alexander

Keaton Wallace is now the No. 2 all-time scorer in UTSA school history. — Photo by Joe Alexander

Keaton Wallace has moved into second on the UTSA all-time scoring list. Jhivvan Jackson leads with 2,389 points, followed by Wallace with 1,928.

Former San Antonio schoolboy Devin Brown, who played for the Roadrunners from 1998-2002, scored 1,922.

Wallace moved up with a 33-point performance Friday night at Florida International. Jackson, the leading scorer among active NCAA Division I players, scored 22 as he climbed to within reach of 2,400.

Only 103 players in Division I history have scored 2,400 points.

UTSA wins on the road as Alley, Parrish key a late surge at FIU

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The game looked a lot like some others that the UTSA Roadrunners had played on the road this year. Keaton Wallace and Jhivvan Jackson shot the ball well early, and UTSA jumped out to a 15-point lead.

Then in the second half, things changed.

The momentum, slowly, started to shift. The FIU Panthers, down by eight at halftime, kept plugging, kept chipping away. All of a sudden, Antonio Daye hit a jumper with 11:40 remaining, and the Panthers had seized a three-point edge.

Not to worry. The UTSA Roadrunners flipped the script on the season entirely down the stretch, making plays on both ends of the floor en route to their first road win of the season.

In another twist, a couple of players not named Jackson and Wallace contributed mightily in the final push for an 87-80 victory over the Panthers.

Forward Cedrick Alley Jr. anchored the paint on defense, while Eric Parrish scored seven points and crashed the boards for a few key offensive rebounds in the final 10 minutes.

As a result, the Roadrunners improved to 4-1 in their last five games to 1-8 on the road this season. Moreover, they gave themselves a chance to sweep the two-game series in Miami.

Records

UTSA 9-9, 5-6
FIU 10-11, 2-9

Coming up

UTSA at FIU, 1 p.m. Saturday

Notable

Wallace painted a masterpiece with 33 points and 7 rebounds. Jackson, playing with foul trouble most of the night, added 22 points. But this game wasn’t about eye-popping, three-point shooting, even though Wallace knocked down four of them and Jackson three. It was much more about the inspired play of Alley and Parrish down the stretch.

Quotable

“It was very exciting to see the other guys (Parrish and Alley) make big plays. There was one stretch where we were scoring two or three, four trips in a row, and it wasn’t Jhivvan and Keaton. Those two had monster nights. But we would get a bucket from Ced. We’d get a bucket from Parrish. We’d get a bucket from (Jordan Ivy-Curry). That’s really, really exciting.” — UTSA coach Steve Henson.

Furthermore

Another storyline centered on the Roadrunners winning a game on an opponent’s home court. They hadn’t done it since February of 2020. At the end of last season, they won at Old Dominion and then dropped their last three road contests of the regular season. This year, they started the season 0-8 on the road, including a humbling 69-51 loss to UTEP last Saturday night in El Paso.

Feeling good again

“I feel like it was a sense of relief, a little bit, because this is our first road win. I think we’re 1-7 or 1-8 on the road, so getting this road win today was big for our confidence. Like I said, we got to be ready to do it again tomorrow.” — said Wallace, who hit 12 of 19 from the field.

FIU by the numbers

Forward Antonio Daye, Jr., 26 points on 12 of 26 shooting. Guard Tevin Brewer, 17 points, with three 3-point baskets. Forward Dimon Carrigan, 15 points, 11 rebounds, 6 blocks. Like the Roadrunners, the Panthers shot the ball well early, hitting 59.3 percent from the field in the first half. In the second half, UTSA did a better job of limiting FIU’s good looks. The Panthers made only 43.8 percent after intermission. The loss dropped FIU to 1-8 in its last 9 games. The Panthers have lost eight straight in conference, including four of those at home.

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Henson: ‘We think we have a good chance to win this weekend’

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The UTSA Roadrunners have enjoyed a productive week of practice and will approach this weekend’s Conference USA games at Florida International as an opportunity to spark a run to the end of the regular season.

If they win on Friday night for their first road victory, well, that would be nice, too.

In their last outing, they collapsed down the stretch in a 69-51 loss to the UTEP Miners, falling to 0-8 on the road this season.

“To lose at UTEP is not the end of the world,” UTSA coach Steve Henson said in a Wednesday afternoon zoom call. “Put that behind us. Look forward. We think we have a good chance to win this weekend.”

The Roadrunners will play the Panthers at 6 p.m. on Friday and at 1 p.m. on Saturday in Miami, at the Ocean Bank Convocation Center.

Records

UTSA 8-9, 4-6
FIU 9-10, 2-8

Coming up

UTSA has eight games left in the regular season. After playing two in Florida against the Panthers, the Roadrunners return home on Feb. 12-13 to face the Florida Atlantic Owls (8-7, 3-3). After that, they’ll go back out on the road to face the Charlotte 49ers (9-7, 5-3) on Feb. 19-20. UTSA is set to complete the regular season at home on Feb. 26-27 against the UAB Blazers (14-2, 7-1). The C-USA tournament is March 10-13 in Frisco.