UTSA women beat Charlotte 64-50 to win AAC opener

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Stepping up with their defense and playing the passing lanes, the UTSA women won an American Athletic Conference opener Sunday afternoon, coming away with a 64-50 road victory against the Charlotte 49ers.

“Any win on the road in conference play is tough,” UTSA coach Karen Aston said on the team’s radio broadcast. “I especially think the first game … there’s a lot of nerves. I think we’ll play better as conference play rolls along.”

UTSA held Charlotte to 29.4 percent shooting from the field and forced 25 turnovers in claiming its seventh victory of the season by a double-digit margin.

Forward Jordyn Jenkins scored 18 for the Roadrunners, who improved to 10-2. Sidney Love and Maya Linton scored 11 points apiece and Nina De Leon Negron added 10.

On the boards, Linton and Idara Udon prevailed. Linton snared nine and Udo eight.

For the 49ers, who fell to 5-7, guard Haleigh Breland led the way with 21 points and Alexis Andrews had 11. UTSA held everyone else to single digits.

First half

Jordyn Jenkins scored nine points, and UTSA drilled five 3-point baskets to take a 34-21 lead on Charlotte at intermission.

UTSA entered the game with its best non-conference record and came out firing, nailing seven of its first eight shot attempts.

A 3-pointer by Linton and a steal and fast-break layup by De Leon Negron pushed the Roadrunners into a 17-3 lead with 6:02 left in the first quarter.

The 49ers never got closer than eight for the remainder of the half.

Defensively, the Roadrunners showed off the prowess that makes them No. 1 in the AAC in that category. They limited the 49ers to six of 31 shooting over the first two quarters for 19.4 percent. Breland led the 49ers with 11 points.

Records

UTSA 10-2
Charlotte 5-7

Coming up

UAB at UTSA, Wednesday, 6:30 p.m.

UTSA women open play today in the AAC at Charlotte

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

After losing only twice in the first few months of the season, UTSA women open conference play today on the road against the Charlotte 49ers.

The Roadrunners (9-2) will carry high hopes of making an American Athletic Conference championship run into a meeting with the 49ers (5-6) at 1 p.m. at Halton Arena.

Blessed with a dynamic scoring threat in forward Jordyn Jenkins, quality guard play and a defense yielding only 55 points per game, UTSA has won six times by double-digit margins.

The Roadrunners have had a week off since routing Texas State, 70-54, in San Marcos on Dec. 21. On that same day, the 49ers also played on the road and lost by 27 at Davidson.

In falling 82-55, Charlotte failed to score 60 for the eighth time this season.

Playing under the guidance of new coach Tomekia Reed, the 49ers’ best hope today might be in controlling the pace and locking down on the defensive end, where they’re holding opponents to 64.2 points.

Charlotte has won three games this year during which it has limited opponents to fewer than 50 points. The 49ers won at Mercer on Dec. 5 by 43-42. They did it again at home on Dec. 16 when they beat Winthrop, 55-47.

Jackson State transfer Hayleigh Breland leads Charlotte, averaging 11.9 points and 5.2 rebounds. Forward Keanna Rembert, who averages 9.9. points and 6.0, was one of the players who faced the Roadrunners last year in San Antonio.

Rembert played 37 minutes and scored 10 points as the Roadrunners downed the 49ers 81-80 in double overtime.

Records

UTSA 9-2
Charlotte 5-6

Coming up

UAB at UTSA, Wednesday, 6:30 p.m.

Notable

Both the UTSA women and men will play today for the first time since the holiday break, and both are on the road.

The men (6-5) will take on the Army Black Knights (5-6) at West Point, N.Y. Tipoff is at 2 p.m. It’s the last non-conference game for the Roadrunners before they open AAC play on Jan. 4 at Tulane. Tai’Reon Joseph, Raekwon Horton and Marcus Millender are expected to play.

Joseph and Horton sat out UTSA’s last game, on Dec. 19, against Southwestern Adventist. Millender exited the game in the first half with an injury.

After a phoned-in pep talk from Jeff Traylor, the UTSA women rout Texas State

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

SAN MARCOS – As the UTSA women’s basketball team bus rolled north-bound on Interstate 35 Saturday morning, Coach Karen Aston’s phone rang. It was Roadrunners football coach Jeff Traylor, who had something to say.

On speaker phone, the message came through loud and clear. “He said we have to beat Texas State by 39 because that’s how much they lost by,” UTSA guard Sidney Love recalled.

The Roadrunners’ women couldn’t quite erase the sting of the football team’s 49-10 loss to the Bobcats in September, nor could they quite win by 39, but they made an emphatic statement nevertheless that they’re ready for all comers in the American Athletic Conference.

Closing out their non-conference schedule, the defense-minded Roadrunners blew the game open in the second quarter and built leads as large as 23 points in the second half, before they ran off the floor at Strahan Arena with a 70-54 victory.

With their first win over the Bobcats since 2016, the Roadrunners improved to 9-2 going into next week’s AAC opener at Charlotte. The win-loss record is the best in school history going into conference play. Moreover, six of their victories have come by double digits.

“We’ve got our foot on the gas and we don’t plan on stopping anytime soon,” Love said. “We just have our eye on the prize. We have our eye on the main goal, which is to become a championship team.”

Jordyn Jenkins led a balanced attack by producing 17 points to lead the Roadrunners, who shot 49.1 percent from the floor and had 11 players hit the scoring column. Love added 15 points and Cheyenne Rowe had 10 off the bench as UTSA improved to 5-2 away from home and 3-2 on the road.

Point guard Nina De Leon Negron contributed nine points, eight assists and six rebounds. A graduate transfer from Incarnate, she also had five steals.

The Bobcats entered the game on a four-game winning streak, but they couldn’t get much going offensively, shooting 34.6 percent. The Bobcats committed 21 turnovers in the face of a pressing and trapping defense by the Roadrunners.

For most of the game, UTSA players just looked more alive, more energized. It was particularly evident in the second quarter, when they outscored the Bobcats 27-12 en route to a 39-20 lead. Jenkins said the motivation stemmed partly from recent history in the I-35 rivalry.

“We haven’t beat Texas State in the last two years that we’ve been here, and I think it’s been even longer,” she said. “So, we knew that we had to come out here and punch ’em in the face. So, it worked out.”

Texas State, in fact, had won the last six meetings and eight of the last nine. UTSA hadn’t won in the series since a 2016 game in San Antonio. UTSA hadn’t won a game in San Marcos since 2013. For most of the afternoon, the Roadrunners played with pace that the Bobcats’ couldn’t match.

“I just think our kids like to play up-tempo,” UTSA coach Karen Aston said. “I think this game, particularly, we had a lot of good energy off the bench. I thought people came off the bench and added energy, enthusiasm … It wasn’t always pretty, but I thought the kids played with a lot of juice today.”

First half

The Roadrunners employed defensive pressure to create several easy baskets en route to a dominant second quarter and a 39-20 lead on the Bobcats.

Playing on the Bobcats’ home court, the Roadrunners led by four points after one low-scoring quarter, and then exploded out of the gates with 13 unanswered points to start the second.

Jenkins started it off by hitting a three-pointer, then made a steal guarding an inbounds pass and scored five points overall in the run, which lifted the Roadrunners into a 25-8 lead.

Freshman guard Damara Allen also made her mark, scoring four points in the streak, one on a fast-break layup and another on a jumper, also at the end of a breakout.

After Jaylin Foster scored inside for the Bobcats, the Roadrunners scored eight more unanswered, including four by Sidney Love and four more by Cheyenne Rowe.

As Rowe deftly sank a left-hander on a post move, UTSA had its largest lead of the half at 33-12.

In all, UTSA’s defense made four steals and created six Texas State turnovers in the period. On the other end, the Roadrunners hit 11 of 19 shots from the field for 57.9 percent.

It was easily one of the better quarters of the season for the Roadrunners, who open AAC play at Charlotte on Dec. 29. The team’s AAC home opener is on Jan. 1 against the UAB Blazers.

Records

UTSA 9-2
Texas State 6-4

Coming up

UTSA at Charlotte, Dec. 29, 1 p.m.
UAB at UTSA, Jan. 1, 6:30 p.m.

Notable

Kansas State transfer Ja’Mia Harris led the Bobcats in scoring with 10 points on four of seven shooting from the field. Takeira Ramey contributed nine points and four assists. Western Kentucky transfer Jaylin Foster, Texas State’s leading scorer, had a tough day by hitting only one of nine from the floor. The former standout from San Antonio-area Steele High School finished with six points. Incarnate Word transfer Destiny Terrell, another weapon for the Bobcats, finished with two points and eight rebounds.

Women’s basketball: UTSA faces a road test at I-35 rival Texas State

UTSA players warm up in Strahan Arena in preparation for a noon tipoff against the Texas State Bobcats. – Photo by Jerry Briggs

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

SAN MARCOS — The UTSA women’s basketball team is 8-2 this season leading into Saturday’s date with the Texas State Bobcats. If the Roadrunners can win in Strahan Arena, the Roadrunners would take the best record in school history into conference play when they open on the road in The American next week at Charlotte.

Even though UTSA might have its best team in years, with premium guard play, quality depth and a prominent inside scoring threat in Jordyn Jenkins, the task might not be an easy one.

Texas State has won six straight in the series against UTSA, including a 3-0 record against Roadrunners coach Karen Aston. UTSA hasn’t won a game in the Interstate 35 rivalry series since 2016 and hasn’t won in San Marcos since 2013.

Additionally, the Bobcats are 6-3 and playing well, having won four in a row. In their last outing, they traveled to meet the the University of Denver last Sunday, downing the Pioneers 63-60. Kansas State transfer Ja’Mia Harris, a 5-11 sophomore, led the way with 16 points.

During the winning streak, the Bobcats have won at UT-Rio Grande Valley and Tarleton State, at home against the University of Texas at Dallas and then on the road again at Denver.

Forward Jaylin Foster, who played in high school at Cibolo Steele in the San Antonio area, leads the Bobcats, averaging 10.5 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.1 steals. Guard Destiny Terrell, a transfer from Incarnate Word, averages 8.8 and 5.9 rebounds. Harris is averaging 8.6 points and Morgan Hill 8.2

UTSA is coming to the end of a busy week. Traveling to the West Coast last weekend, the Roadrunners played well against an NCAA-caliber team in Stanford and lost, 62-57. UTSA returned home for a few days of practice and then downed UT Arlington, 76-61, on Thursday afternoon.

Coming up

UTSA at Texas State, Saturday, noon

Records

UTSA 8-2
Texas State 6-3

Notable

Texas State coach Zenarae Antoine, in her 14th year at Texas State, is 9-5 against UTSA. Last year, the Bobcats came into San Antonio and rallied late to tie the score in regulation, before knocking off the Roadrunners, 65-57, in overtime. Jenkins, UTSA’s best player, wasn’t available to play as she was in the midst of rehabilitation from knee surgery. Two years ago in San Marcos, Jenkins had a big game, producing 18 points, seven rebounds and five blocks. But a second-half rally propelled Texas State to a 60-55 victory.

Aston’s Roadrunners have soared into the top 60 in the NCAA’s NET rankings. They’re No. 55 as of Saturday morning. The Roadrunners have scored five double-digit victories, with their only losses in single digits on the road in power-conference settings, at Texas A&M and Stanford. Defense is UTSA’s calling card, as the Roadrunners are holding teams to 36.8 percent shooting. They’re also outscoring opponents by 13.8 points and outrebounding them by 11.6.

Jenkins is averaging 19.2 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.5 steal. She’s also averaging 1.3 blocks. The guard tandem of Sidney Love and Nina De Leon Negron is clicking. Coming off a 21-point game, Love is averaging 10.7 points, 4.0 assists and 1.8 steals. De Leon Negron, in her first year with the team, is humming with 9.7 points, 4.2 rebounds and 5.1 assists.

LJ Brown brings his father to tears in UTSA’s 117-58 victory over Southwestern Adventist

Former UTSA great Devin Brown (left) was on the television broadcast Thursday when his son, LJ Brown, made his debut for the Roadrunners. – Photo by Jerry Briggs

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Emotions flowed freely toward the end of UTSA’s 117-58 blowout victory Thursday over the Southwestern Adventist Knights, with much of the happiness generated by a walk-on guard by the name of LJ Brown, who made his debut for the Roadrunners a memorable one.

With 7:33 left in the game, Brown saw a lane open up and took it to the basket for a layup, his first field goal in a UTSA uniform.

After he hit it, players on the UTSA bench jumped up and cheered, with one, Primo Spears, running onto the floor to offer a hearty chest bump.

Meanwhile, at press row, Brown’s father was in tears. Former UTSA great Devin Brown, who was on the television broadcast as a color commentator, talked about the moment later, his eyes reddening as he was asked about his son’s first bucket as a Roadrunner.

“Well, you know, you prepare yourself for moments like that,” Devin Brown said. “But when it actually happened, obviously I was live on the broadcast, and I lost it. I started crying. Just very happy for him.”

The Roadrunners toyed with a non-NCAA Division I opponent for the first minutes Thursday and then turned it to win in a blowout for their third straight victory.

With the win, UTSA improved to 5-2 in their last seven games and to 6-5 on the season.

Byron Fields knocked down two free throws with 15 minutes left in the first half to bring the Knights to within 17-9 of the Roadrunners, who play in the Division I American Athletic Conference.

After that, the first game of a holiday basketball doubleheader at the Convocation Center turned into a runaway, with UTSA coach Austin Claunch emptying his bench.

The crowd became energized at the end by a few dunks from 6-9 forward Jonnivius Smith and also the debut of Brown, whose father Devin reached the NBA after a college career at UTSA. Devin Brown, one of the program’s leading scorers, paced the Roadrunners to the NCAA tournament in 1999.

LJ Brown, who attended Johnson High School in San Antonio, played 9 minutes and 51 seconds at the end of the game against the Knights. He scored five points on two of seven shooting from the field.

“Felt really good,” Brown said, who knew before-hand that there was a chance he could play. “Felt really good getting out there. Emotions were high, but they were easy to control.”

Southwestern Adventist, from Keene, Tex., in the Fort Worth area, plays in the National Christian Collegiate Athletic Association.

The UTSA women were scheduled to play the second game of the double dip later Thursday afternoon against the UT Arlington Mavericks.

Damari Monsanto led the UTSA men with 22 points. He hit six of 12 from 3-point distance, his fifth game of the year four or more makes from beyond the arc. Skylar Wicks had 20 points and eight rebounds Wicks was four of seven from three. Meanwhile, Primo Spears, one of the nation’s leading scorers, contributed 16 points in 25 minutes. Smith finished with 13 points, 17 rebounds and three steals.

Orlando Goodwin and Domonique Wilkins scored 19 points apiece to pace the Knights.

First half

UTSA played without regular rotation players Raekwon Horton and Tai’Reon Joseph, who were both on the bench but did not get into the game. Starting guard Marcus Millender left the court with 14:27 remaining in the half with what looked like an ankle injury. He didn’t return in the half. Damari Monsanto led the Roadrunners with 16 points by hitting six of 11 from the field and four of eight from three-point territory. UTSA led 61-24 at intermission.

Notable

The game was an exhibition for Southwestern Adventist, from Keene, Tex., in the Fort Worth area. The Knights play in the National Christian Collegiate Athletic Association. Southwestern was playing back-to-back games. On Wednesday, they lost 117-63 at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Records

Southwestern Adventist 1-8
UTSA 6-5

Coming up

UTSA at Army, Dec. 29
x-UTSA at Tulane, Jan. 4
x-AAC opener

UTSA women beat UT Arlington and move to 8-2 on the season

-Video courtesy of UTSA athletics, via ESPN+

Editor’s note: UTSA Roadrunners guard Sidney Love drills a 3-point shot off a sweet step-back move in the second quarter to cap what is described as a ‘helter-skelter’ possession. Upon review, it looks as if UTSA nearly turned it over three times before Love hit one of her three 3-pointers against the UT Arlington Mavericks.

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Guard Sidney Love got knocked down a few times, but she always seemed to get back up and make a play. Love produced 21 points and four assists Thursday afternoon, leading the UTSA Roadrunners to a 76-61 victory over the UT Arlington Mavericks.

Jordyn Jenkins scored 14 points and Idara Udo 10 as the Roadrunners bounced back from Monday’s loss at Stanford and improved to 8-2 on the season, including 4-0 at home. It is the first 8-2 start for the UTSA women since the 1997-98 season.

To cap a busy week, the Roadrunners will play Saturday in San Marcos against the Texas State Bobcats. It’ll be their final non-conference game before starting play in The American on Dec. 29 at Charlotte.

Love, a junior from San Antonio-area Steele High School, put on a master-class performance against the Mavericks.

She hit eight of 10 shots from the field and hit three of three from 3-point range. Despite pressure from the UT Arlington defenders, Love made only one turnover.

Koi Love (no relation to Sidney) led the Mavericks with 17 points and seven rebounds.

First half

For Sidney Love, the first half was an adventure.

Not only did she have 12 points to lead the Roadrunners, she also had four assists and a hand in one crazy play early in the second quarter. Skidding on the floor after she was bumped off balance, she gained control and then fired — still on her side — a cross court pass through traffic.

At that point, the Roadrunners tossed another pass high over the defense and into the corner, where it was saved from going out of bounds. The ball ended up in Love’s hands near the top of the arc, where she lined up a three and drilled it.

Records

UT Arlington 4-6
UTSA 8-2

Coming up

UTSA at Texas State, Saturday, noon
x-UTSA at Charlotte, Dec. 29, 1 p.m.
x-American Athletic Conference opener

Notable

Sophomore guard Aysia Proctor made her regular-season debut for the Roadrunners against the Mavericks. Playing point guard, she had two assists and a turnover in eight minutes. Proctor, a starter at shooting guard last season, took two shots and missed both. Before the start of the season, she stepped away from the team to deal with what Coach Karen Aston described as “off-court challenges.”

UTSA coaches applaud groundbreaking on basketball-volleyball training center

Karen Aston. UTSA beat Northern Colorado 80-62 in the first round of the WNIT on Thursday, March 21, 2024, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA women’s basketball coach Karen Aston likes the idea that her players will be able to work out at any time in the school’s new basketball-volleyball training center. Officials say the facility is expected to be completed by mid- to late-2026. – File photo by Joe Alexander

Editor’s note: The UTSA men’s basketball team will take on the Southwestern Adventist Knights Thursday at noon in the first of two games at the Convocation Center. The women will host UT Arlington at 4.

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Seated behind her desk last July, UTSA women’s basketball coach Karen Aston welcomed a reporter into her office and waited for the interview to begin. Right off the bat, she was asked if she had been talking to her players and recruits about the prospects of a new, on-campus training base.

After all, the final details on construction of a proposed practice facility for men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball seemed all but certain to come together by the end of the year. Aston, however, delivered a carefully measured reply.

“In the business we’re in now, you’re living in the moment,” UTSA’s fourth-year coach told The JB Replay at the time. “What you have (in terms of infrastructure), is what you have to focus on, just because of the ever-changing climate. So I think that as much as I want to sell the (new) practice facility to the recruits and all of that, the reality is, we’re just living in the moment.

“What we have, is what we need to do the best with. So, that’s kind of been my mindset. You want to stay in the moment and make the most of it. When that ground breaks, I think that’s when you can really start getting excited with your current players.”

That magical day for Aston arrived Wednesday when school officials, boosters and civic leaders gathered on the west end of the UTSA campus to cheer the start of construction on a complex that could very well alter the trajectory of basketball and volleyball at the school.

UTSA’s newest major facility for athletics is a $35 million project.

By the time it’s completed in 2026, men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball will have a new home base, a structure measuring 53,000 square feet, complete with two practice courts, locker rooms, a team lounge for each of the three programs, a weight room, athletic training with hydrotherapy, meeting rooms and coaches’ offices.

Teams will continue to play games in the Convocation Center, but coaches are thrilled with the prospect of a more expansive setup for practices, with all the amenities on the premises.

“I think we’ve been waiting a long time for this,” Aston told reporters, “so it’s something I knew when I came here, and everybody that’s part of our athletic program knows, that this is a long time coming, and if you want the game to change for the basketball and volleyball programs, this has to be a piece of that.”

“I’m excited, for sure, but also appreciative of the people that gave the donations that allowed us to get this off the ground, (of) the commitment from the president (of the university, Taylor Eighmy) and (athletic director) Lisa (Campos). I think, all around, it’s a great day.”

A trio of coaches — Aston, men’s basketball coach Austin Claunch and volleyball coach Carol Price-Torok — met with the media after the groundbreaking and offered their views on how the facility could impact their programs and day-to-day operations.

Basketball and volleyball games will continue to be played at the Convocation Center, just as they have since the 1981-82 season, but the lives of the athletes wearing UTSA jerseys will be changed. Coaches believe that their daily routines will be more conducive to high-level performance.

“I think it’s just gym time, to be honest with you,” Aston said. “If you’re trying to play at a high level, you recruit players that want to play at a high level, and the ones that (do) will be in the gym. They want 24-hour access. They’re different than we are. They want to take a nap, wake up at midnight and go shoot.”

With the new facility, it’ll all be possible for young and restless athletes willing to put in the time.

“(Athletes) want to be able to get in the gym any time, get in the weight room,” Aston said. “I just think amenities are fantastic. They make you feel like you’re headed in the right direction as far as having a respected basketball program. But, bottom line, it’s the gym time.”

Claunch said on a zoom call earlier this week that the facility promises to affect the athletes’ daily lives in many ways. Having a weight room in the same building as the practice court. Having a team room to watch film.

The practice facility, he said, “is something that’s going to affect our student athletes every single day. Daily deposits to help them improve physically, mentally, and that’s … obviously, it’s a game changer.”

Claunch signed two players in the early period last month, guard Dorian Hayes from the Houston area and forward Kaidon Rayfield from Oklahoma City. He said he talked to both of them about the benefits that they would get from the new facility during their careers at UTSA.

“Absolutely,” Claunch said. “Obviously Dorian and Kaidon are fired up about what we’re doing, but also, when you’re talking about what they’re going to have in their sophomore year, I mean, that’s going to help their player development, it just makes their entire experience here easier and better and help them win more games.

“Quite, frankly it’s going to help us. It’s going to translate to more wins, you know, just in a lot of different ways.”

For the past 40-something years, all three UTSA teams have played and practiced in the Convocation Center. Currently, volleyball season starts in the late August and runs through mid-November. Basketball season starts the first week of November and runs through the first of March, generally.

Practices for all three sports are ongoing for most of the year, restricting teams to certain times of day without much wiggle room to re-schedule.

“Right now, we’re practicing in the morning, which is great, and we can make it work,” Price-Torok said. “But if we want to sleep in until 9 and then go from 9 to 12 (noon), we can’t. Because you’re in somebody else’s practice time. So, I think it gives us the freedom to make some of those changes … and give those players the time that they need.”

Price-Torok also talked about how the move should ease some of the burden of trainers, who currently move between the RACE building and the Convocation Center, which is about a five-minute walk across campus.

“For them to be housed in one location … it’s just going to be game-changing for them,” the coach said. “The time that our trainers spend every single day, to spread people out, because we’re all sharing this big training room … to be able to go in here (into the new facility) and make her time demand and her job a little bit easier, (it) will help us keep trainers longer (and improve) their quality of life.”

Milestone achievement: UTSA breaks ground on a basketball-volleyball training center

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Calling it “an awesome, celebratory day,” UTSA officials realized another goal in facilities development Wednesday morning with a groundbreaking ceremony for a $35 million basketball and volleyball training center.

UTSA president Taylor Eighmy, addressing a gathering in the foyer of the Roadrunner Athletics Center of Excellence, thanked university staff, boosters and civic leaders for their help in kicking off construction of a 53,000-square foot complex that is expected to be completed in 2026.

“Today is one of those important milestones (for) how we’re going to get where we want to be” in athletics, Eighmy told the group.

For Dr. Lisa Campos, the UTSA vice president for intercollegiate athletics, the groundbreaking represented a starting point for the third major construction project the department has undertaken since she was hired in 2017.

Under her watch, UTSA has built the RACE facility, which is considered the hub of the department, and also the Park West Fieldhouse, the training home for the track and field and soccer teams.

Campos said her excitement is “through the roof” in getting started on what will be the first major facilities investment in basketball and volleyball since UTSA started playing intercollegiate sports in 1981.

The complex is expected to include two full-sized NCAA practice courts, locker rooms, a team lounge for each program, a weight room, athletic training with hydrotherapy, meeting rooms and coaches’ offices.

“We hear from our student-athletes all the time,” Campos said. “They want to be honing their skills, and this is going to give them the opportunity. And from the recruitment standpoint, facilities do still matter. We know NIL matters, but facilities still matter.”

Campos said the construction timeline is about two years.

“We’re projecting that it will be done sometime mid- to late-2026,” she said.

Once the new facility opens, both basketball teams and the volleyball team will continue to play in the Convocation Center, which has been in use for more than 40 years.

The athletic department has prioritized upgrades to baseball and softball facilities, as well as adding a covered football practice field.

But, Campos said, in the long-term, she wants to see a basketball competition site on campus.

“Obviously, we are constantly looking at the Convocation Center,” she said. “We know that’s probably going to take a public-private partnership to get that done. So it is on our radar, but we do have some other projects ahead of that.”

UTSA men show improvement in two-game sweep of North Dakota

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

While the UTSA Roadrunners made progress last weekend with two victories over North Dakota, giving them four wins in their last six games, room for improvement remains before conference play starts on Jan. 4, Coach Austin Claunch said in a Monday afternoon zoom call.

Austin Claunch. UTSA beat North Dakota 80-76 in non-conference men's basketball on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Austin Claunch’s UTSA Roadrunners improved to 5-5 on the season after two wins last weekend against North Dakota. – File photo by Joe Alexander

The Roadrunners downed the Fighting Hawks 80-76 on Friday night in San Antonio, and then traveled to Grand Forks, N.D. to complete the sweep with an 95-85 victory on Sunday afternoon. They’re 5-5 on the season going into a Thursday matinee (with a noon tipoff) at home against the Southwestern Adventist Knights.

“We played OK Friday night, and so on your day off you’re sort of thinking you want to make some adjustments, but you also don’t want to do too much. So you try to .. focus on yourselves and things that you can do better. Clearly, we shot it better up there than we did at home, which is good.”

UTSA hit 51.8 percent from the field and 62.5 percent from three on Sunday afternoon. Broken down, the Roadrunners knocked down a season-high 15 threes in 24 attempts.

“I think we’re starting to understand the shots that we want to key to offensively and how we want to flow on offense and what that needs to look like,” Claunch said.

The Roadrunners’ travel plan, utilizing a late-night charter out of San Antonio on Friday, allowing them to get to their hotel in Grand Forks by 2:30 a.m., was an added boost. Traditionally, UTSA has traveled on commercial airlines over the years. The charter to North Dakota was the first for the Roadrunners this season.

Claunch said it “makes a difference” to charter and avoid what would have been a long day of commercial travel on Saturday. “We got to the hotel at 2, maybe 2:30 (in the morning),” Claunch said. “You sleep in, maybe have some breakfast, and you can go ahead and get that film done in the early afternoon. Give them a few more hours off and then come back in the evening, and you can go shoot or watch some more film, or whatever.”

Given the cost factor, it’s likely not feasible for the Roadrunners to charter more than a handful of times this season.

“It makes a huge difference to sort of be able to get on that plane, get there, put that one to bed earlier in the day maybe earlier than you would if you didn’t charter,” the coach said. “It’s little things. It’s the little details. We’ve done it the other way. We’re not going to make an excuse either way. But when you do it, it certainly in my opinion is a competitive advantage. And so we’re really blessed to be able to do that.”

Notable

Claunch said UTSA remains “very much a work in progress” on defense. “Our man to man is coming along, but it’s not near the level it needs to be by conference play,” he said.

“We’ve thrown some zone in, and that’s been good for us,” the coach continued. “So to have a couple of different things we can go to has been nice. We’ve just got to get better across the board. Certainly, rebounding has got to improve.”

Through 10 games, UTSA ranks last in the American Athletic Conference in scoring defense (79.2) and field goal percentage allowed (46.3). The Roadrunners’ three-point percentage allowed (35.9) ranks 11th out of 13 teams.

UTSA fared better against North Dakota, holding the Hawks to 38.8 percent in the first game and 44.6 percent in the second. The Hawks hit 13 triples in a fast-paced game Sunday afternoon.

“We’ve thrown some zone in, and that’s been good for us,” Claunch said. “So to have a couple of different things we can go to has been nice. We’ve just got to get better across the board. Certainly, rebounding has got to improve. But again, to ultimately go 2-0 this week after two really tough, close games (at Saint Mary’s and Arkansas), to get back to .500 before the break (is good).”

Home cooking? Stanford gets a steal and a late basket to beat UTSA, 62-57

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

After a strange sequence of events in the final 13 seconds that totally frustrated the UTSA Roadrunners, the home team Stanford Cardinal made a defensive stop at the end and scored on a breakaway layup to record a 62-57 victory Monday afternoon at Maples Pavilion.

UTSA’s seven-game winning streak came to an end in bizarre fashion. Trailing by three with 13.5 seconds remaining and hoping to tie the game in regulation, the Roadrunners inbounded the ball. But after an estimated three or four seconds, officials noticed that the clock had not started.

A lengthy discussion ensued, and officials handed the ball to UTSA to inbound on the side. Much to the dismay of Roadrunners coach Karen Aston, officials put 10.9 seconds on the clock for UTSA’s last chance.

When play resumed, UTSA worked the ball to forward Idara Udo on the left elbow, but Stanford guard Jzaniya Harriel came up with the possession. She went the other way for a layup with no time left to secure the victory.

“That’s frustrating,” Aston said on the team’s postgame radio broadcast, “because you draw something up with the allotted amount of time. We’re emotionally and mentally ready to run it. And, you know, (there is a) stoppage of play, and (they) take time off (the clock) for their error. A little bit frustrating.”

In a gritty show of resolve against a nationally-renowned opponent in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Roadrunners fell behind by 10 in the first half and erased that deficit. In the fourth quarter, they allowed Stanford to build a 15-point lead and nearly came back to tie on the home floor of a power conference foe.

“We lost the game in the third quarter,” Aston said. “We let it get away from us, and (we) fought back … hard. We’ll learn some things (from) this loss, for sure.”

Stanford entered the game on a two-game losing streak, trying to avoid a three-game skid in one season for the first time in 23 years. It wasn’t pretty, but the Cardinal succeeded, with guard Elena Bosgana scoring 13 points, pulling down 11 rebounds and passing for three assists. Bosgana, from Greece, scored nine points in the third quarter when her team started to pull away from UTSA.

In addition, Harriel scored 12 points and hurt the Roadrunners with three of four shooting from the 3-point arc. Senior forward Brooke Demetre added eight of her 11 points in the first half. Demetre, another long-range shooting specialist, knocked down three of six from the arc.

As a team, Stanford made eight of 24 from distance after entering the game as the nation’s leader in 3-point shooting percentage. The Cardinal came in shooting 42 percent from three, which means that UTSA did a more than respectable job on some of the best perimeter players in the nation.

The Roadrunners had high hopes coming into the game at Stanford, where three national championship banners hang from the rafters. They had won seven straight and had won their last two by margins of 31 and 43 points. In the end, though, they didn’t make enough plays.

Jordyn Jenkins and Sidney Love each scored 14 to lead the team, but neither shot a high percentage. Jenkins finished five for 18 from the field and zero for two from the 3-point line. Love, who hit six of 14 shots from the floor, made two threes in the final 3:45 of the game to keep UTSA hopes alive.

Point guard Nina De Leon Negron had 12 points, 10 rebounds and three assists. Forward Cheyenne Rowe came off the bench to produce seven points and four rebounds in 19 minutes.

During UTSA’s late push, the Roadrunners battled back from a 15-point deficit with a spirited 11-0 run. First, Jenkins scored on a jumper. Next, Love drove for a layup and nailed a three. When her triple splashed with 3:45 remaining, Stanford’s lead was reduced to single digits at 57-49.

On the other end, Stanford was faltering. After Demetre misfired on a jumper, UTSA sophomore Emma Luico buried a pull up jumper. Next play, Stanford came up empty again when Agara, the team’s leading scorer, was called for traveling. De Leon Negron missed a layup on the other end, but Rowe was there for the stick back, cutting the lead to four.

Love made it a two-point game when she received a pass on the left side and buried another three. After it ripped the nets, UTSA had pulled to within 59-57. Coming back the other way, the Cardinal got the ball to Bosgana, and Udo fouled intentionally with 13.5 seconds left.

She missed the first free throw and made the second, creating a three-point game going into the fateful final sequence.

Third quarter

Bosgana, a senior from Greece, took charge late in the third quarter for Stanford. The 6-foot-2 senior scored seven points in a spree that lifted the Cardinal into a 14-point lead. When Courtney Ogden hit a runner with 1:23 remaining, the Cardinal held a 47-33 advantage. Nina De Leon Negron sank a layup in the last minute, leaving UTSA down by 12 entering the fourth. Stanford led, 47-35

First half

Using their length and athleticism, the Cardinal stifled the Roadrunners’ offense in the early going, forcing them to miss their first four shots of the game and 11 out of their first 13. The Roadrunners had another long drought, misfiring on seven in a row, in the second quarter.

The Cardinal took advantage of the opportunity, building a 23-13 lead with 5:22 remaining on a three by Harriel. But in the end, the Roadrunners scored the last seven points of the half to pull within one. Stanford took a 26-25 lead into the dressing room at halftime.

Records

UTSA 7-2
Stanford 8-3

Coming up

UT Arlington at UTSA, Thursday, 4 p.m.
UTSA at Texas State, Saturday, noon

Notable

The Roadrunners had a chance to end a long losing streak against power conference opponents and played hard, but they didn’t execute well enough to get it done. As a result, they have now dropped 25 in a row to teams from major conferences in NCAA Division I that generate the most revenue.

Aston is 0-9 against the power elite in a little more than three seasons at UTSA, including a 55-51 loss on Nov. 7 at Texas A&M. UTSA’s last win against a power opponent came on Dec. 16, 2010, when they defeated the Kansas State Wildcats, 72-55, at the Convocation Center. That win was 14 years ago to the day of the game at Stanford.

The Cardinal came into the game receiving votes in the latest Associated Press Top 25. They were ranked 38th in the NCAA’s NET computer rankings. UTSA entered ranked 50th, the highest NET ranking of any team in the American Athletic Conference.

Stanford is entering its first season as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, considered one of the four majors after the latest realignment. Previously, Stanford had been aligned with an amalgam of universities on the West Coast since 1918. Most recently, they were in the Pac-12, which has effectively dissolved. From the old Pac 12, Stanford and Cal started play this season in the ACC; Washington, Oregon, USC and UCLA moved into the Big 10 and Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah linked with the Big 12.

Stanford is also in transition with its coaching staff. Kate Paye is the head coach, replacing retired legend Tara VanDerveer.