Siena Guttadauro scored eight points in 16 minutes off the bench in the team’s opener at Texas A&M. – File photo by Joe Alexander
Update: UTSA, in a pre-game ceremony, will unveil a banner commemorating the women’s basketball team’s trip to the WNIT last season. In addition, it appears that Roadrunners starting point guard Nina De Leon Negron won’t play today. She was wearing a walking boot on her right foot during warmups.
By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
Karen Aston’s UTSA Roadrunners hope to find the winning formula today against the surprising UT Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros.
Looking for their first victory after losing their opener by four points Thursday at Texas A&M, the Roadrunners will host the Vaqueros, who registered a stunning upset in their first game.
Tipoff will be at 2 p.m. at the Convocation Center.
Edinburg-based UTRGV won on the road Tuesday at the University of Houston, 70-68, to cap a dramatic sequence of events in the final seconds. First, the Vaqueros inbounded when they were down by one point. Junior forward Charlotte O’Keefe responded by draining a three from the top of the circle.
Next, Houston pushed the ball up the court, with Gia Cooke shooting and hitting a three that was waved off after a review. Officials looked at the monitors to determine that Cooke released the shot after the buzzer, giving the win to UTRGV.
It was the first victory for the UTRGV program over a team from a power conference since 2003. Two days later, UTSA opened its season in College Station looking for the program’s first power conference win since 2010.
The Roadrunners came close, but they fell 55-51 to the Aggies. Forward Jordyn Jenkins led UTSA with 18 points and 11 rebounds and Sidney Love scored 10. But the Roadrunners, in need of a complement to Jenkins, came up empty on a couple of possessions in the final minute.
Aston told the team’s radio broadcast that UTSA will keep working to find the right chemistry to pull out close games.
“You know, it’s a new team. New chemistry,” she said. “A lot of players are playing different roles on the team. We’ve got to be able to establish those and figure out who we can count on in different moments. That’s going to take some time, I think.”
Coming up
UTRGV 1-0
UTSA 0-1
Notable
UTRGV hit 12 of 27 from behind the 3-point arc at Houston. Kade Hackerott and Sophia Zufelt each connected on three apiece. O’Keefe was two for two.
The Vaqueros are opening a new chapter in athletics with their move into the Southland Conference. They finished 6-23 overall and 5-15 in 2023-24, their last season in the Western Athletic Conference. Their coach is Lane Lord, who is in his seventh season at the school.
The Vaqueros have at least two players with San Antonio connections, including Ja’Shelle Johnson, a sophomore from Johnson High School, and also senior guard/forward Faith Phillips, who played two years at St. Mary’s University before transferring to UTRGV in 2023.
The Roadrunners are coming off their best season in 15 years. They were 10-8 in the American Athletic Conference and took the No. 4 seed into the AAC tournament, where they were knocked out in the semifinals. Earning a berth in the WNIT, they won a game in a national tournament for the first time in school history They finished 18-15 overall.
The UTSA men were scheduled to play tonight following the women for a basketball doubleheader at the Convo. But the game was canceled, with their opponent, the North Dakota Fighting Hawks, citing travel and weather-related problems. It’s uncertain whether the game will be made up this season.