UTSA’s Henson urges players to learn from close loss

By Jerry Briggs
For theJBreplay.com

JoJo McGlaston hit three free throws with 0.4 seconds remaining to lift Bradley to a 71-69 victory over the UTSA Roadrunners Saturday in the Bahamas.

“We were in position (to win),” UTSA coach Steve Henson told the team’s radio broadcast. “We had a little lead there (at the end) and couldn’t close it out.”

Trailing by one with seven seconds left, Bradley rushed it up court and drew a foul. Officials called it on UTSA’s Austin Karrer against McGlaston.

“I love our guys,” Henson said. “But I didn’t let ’em off the hook.”

Asked by radio broadcaster Jay Howard what he meant by “letting ’em off the hook,” the coach responded, “It would be real easy to walk in there and say bad call. I mean, big call there. They said we fouled a three-point shooter.
I didn’t think we did.

“But it didn’t have to be that way. It shouldn’t have mattered. We had 19 turnovers and we got to learn from that. (We’ve) got to grow from that. We shouldn’t have been in a position where that call would have mattered.”

UTSA (2-2) trailed for most of the game against Bradley (3-1) until a late surge, led by Roadrunners guards Keaton Wallace and Jhivvan Jackson.

Down by 7 with 10 minutes left, the Roadrunners went on a 9-0 run, which was capped by two free throws from Giovanni De Nicolao.

The Roadrunners continued to push, hiking the lead to six points at one juncture and then to five with 2:46 remaining.

De Nicolao made two free throws with seven seconds left, as UTSA went up 69-68.

But the Roadrunners couldn’t hold on, dropping their second game in a row in the Bahamas Showcase.

UTSA will close out the trip with a game against an opponent (TBA) Sunday. Leading scorers were:

UTSA: Keaton Wallace 22, Jhivvan Jackson 15, Giovanni De Nicolao 11.

Bradley: Donte Thomas 18, JoJo McGlaston 15, Darrell Brown 14.