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UTSA looking for payback as it hosts UTEP today

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The UTEP Miners play at the UTSA Convocation Center today at 3 p.m. with a goal of defeating the Roadrunners for the second time in four days.

If it happens, it would be the first regular-season sweep for UTEP over UTSA in men’s basketball since the 2014-15 season.

Naturally, the Roadrunners are equally intent on another outcome. They intend to win to pay the Miners back for what happened in El Paso on Thursday night.

In West Texas, the Miners rallied from an 11-point halftime deficit to down the Roadrunners, 69-64.

UTSA played hard as a team but was saddled with its fifth straight loss while competing without six players who were on the team through the end of December.

Three of those players, including Jordan Ivy-Curry, Josh Farmer and Christian Tucker, were held out in Covid protocols.

Their status for today’s game likely won’t be known for a few more hours.

Three other players — starters Dhieu Deing and Cedrick Alley, Jr., and talented reserve Aleu Aleu — are not expected to play again this season.

Aleu is out with a season-ending injury. Alley is academically ineligible and Deing has left the program to pursue professional basketball.

Regardless of who plays, the goal is the same for the Roadrunners — end a five-game losing streak and start something positive to kick off a three-game homestand.

UTSA has had success under coach Steve Henson against UTEP. In Henson’s six years with the Roadrunners, he is 8-4 against the Miners.

The Miners, 13-10 overall against the Roadrunners in a series dating back to 1981, are scheduled to make their first appearance in San Antonio under the direction of first-year coach Joe Golding.

Golding made a name for himself last year in the NCAA Tournament when his Abilene Christian University Wildcats upset the Shaka Smart-coached Texas Longhorns in the first round.

On Golding’s UTEP staff is Jeremy Cox, who served in the 1990s as a UTSA assistant under former Roadrunners head coaches Stu Starner and Tim Carter.

Ze’Rik Onyema is a UTEP freshman forward from San Antonio’s Jay High School.

Records

UTEP 10-8, 3-3
UTSA 7-12, 0-6

San Antonio’s Stanley Umude paces OT victory for Arkansas

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A few weeks ago, the Arkansas Razorbacks were reeling, having lost three in a row and five of six.

In response, Stanley Umude and his friends have put the losing skid in their rear view mirror with a four-game winning streak.

The latest victory came Saturday night in Fayetteville, Ark., as the Razorbacks turned back the Texas A&M Aggies 76-73 in overtime.

Umude emerged as one of the key players for Arkansas.

The senior transfer from South Dakota, who played in high school at San Antonio Warren, scored 15 points and pulled down seven boards against A&M.

His break-away dunk with 1.2 seconds remaining sealed the win.

Meanwhile, in other highlights involving San Antonio-area athletes in NCAA Division I:

Kevin McCullar Jr., a 6-foot-6 Texas Tech junior from Wagner, didn’t have a great day shooting the ball. He hit only 1 of 7 from the field. But he produced seven points, five rebounds and four assists. More importantly, the 18th-ranked Red Raiders won at home, defeating the West Virginia Mountaineers, 78-65.

Brendan Wenzel, a 6-7 University of Wyoming sophomore from O’Connor, hit four 3-point shots for the Cowboys. He made 4 of 8 from the field and scored 13 points in the Cowboys’ 93-91 victory at home over the New Mexico Lobos. The victory lifted Wyoming to 15-2 on the season and to 4-0 in the Mountain West Conference.

UTEP’s second-half shooting stops UTSA’s upset bid

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Down by 11 at halftime and struggling on offense, the UTEP Miners heated up with seven 3-pointers after intermission and finally subdued the UTSA Roadrunners, 69-64, on Thursday night at the Haskins Center in El Paso.

UTEP, paced in the second half by long-distance shooting from Jorell Saterfield, handed UTSA its fifth straight loss and kept the Roadrunners winless in Conference USA. The Miners have won two in a row and three of their last four.

Dogged by injuries and Covid-19 issues, the Roadrunners played only seven players — six of them on scholarship, plus walk-on forward Isaiah Addo-Ankrah. Division I basketball programs are allowed up to 13 scholarships.

Notable

The Roadrunners, sparked by Addo-Ankrah’s nine points off the bench in 17 minutes, stayed in the game through much of the second half until the Miners took over.

Quotable

“We’re not going to let our guys off the hook,” UTSA coach Steve Henson said on the team’s radio broadcast. “We had enough guys to play, and we had enough guys to win. We just didn’t make enough plays down the stretch. Need to be a little tougher.

“Yeah, there was some fatigue. Some guys had never played big minutes (in college). Especially the young guys who had never done it … Isaiah, for him to go in there in that setting and do what he did, was pretty impressive.”

Germany’s big night

Junior center Jacob Germany led the Roadrunners with 21 points and 10 rebounds. He hit 9 of 18 from the field, including some long jump hooks. Senior guard Darius McNeill added 19 points, 5 rebounds and an assist. Both McNeill and guard Erik Czumbel played all 40 minutes.

Phoenix Ford had 11 points off the bench for the Roadrunners, who shot 63 percent from the field in the first half but only 28 percent after intermission.

For the Miners, Souley Boum scored 22, Saterfield had 18 and Jamal Bieniemy 11 points. Saterfield hit six of the Miners’ 10 three-point shots. Bieniemy also totaled 8 rebounds and 4 assists.

First half

Playing without Jordan Ivy-Curry for the third straight game, the Roadrunners shot 63 percent from the field and rolled to an improbable 38-27 lead before intermission. UTSA hit its first six shots for a 12-3 lead to set the tone.

The Roadrunners also finished strong by hitting its last three before the half. Germany, a 6-foot-11 lefthander, led the way with 14 points on 7 of 8 shooting. McNeill started and scored 10.

On the defensive end, UTSA was just as effective, holding UTEP to 33 percent (10 of 30 afield), with Boum scoring 13 to keep his team in the game.

The Roadrunners started with a lineup that included McNeill and Erik Czumbel at the guards, Lamin Sabally and Lachlan Bofinger at forwards and Germany in the post.

Notable

The UTSA men’s basketball program announced that the following players would not be available for Thursday night’s road game against the UTEP Miners: Aleu Aleu is out with a season-ending injury. Also, Josh Farmer, Jordan Ivy-Curry and Christian Tucker are all in COVID protocols.

Within the past few weeks, the Roadrunners have also lost guard Dhieu Deing, who left the team to turn professional, and power forward Cedrick Alley, Jr., who is academically ineligible. Both are expected to be lost for the season. Deing was the team’s leading scorer and Alley was the leading rebounder.

Records

UTSA 7-12, 0-6
UTEP 10-8, 3-3

Coming up

Sunday — UTEP at UTSA, 3 p.m.
Jan. 27 — FIU at UTSA, 7 p.m.
Jan. 29 — FAU at UTSA, 1 p.m.
Feb. 3 — UTSA at Rice, 7 p.m.
Feb. 5 — UTSA at North Texas, 5 p.m.
Feb. 7 — UTSA at Middle Tennessee, TBD

Nate Davis: East Side leader ‘was always taking care of the kids’

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Nathaniel ‘Nate’ Davis served his East Side community with distinction as a coach and administrator at the Davis-Scott YMCA. — Courtesy photo

By Jerry Briggs
Special report for The JB Replay

Nathaniel ‘Nate’ Davis spent most of his adult life working with children as a coach and as an administrator at the Davis-Scott Family YMCA, an institution of historical renown on the East Side of San Antonio.

The late Odie Davis Jr. founded the Alamo Branch YMCA in 1944. It later became the Davis-Scott Family YMCA. — Photo by Jerry Briggs

When Davis showed up for a day’s work, he would turn on the lights at about 9 a.m. and wouldn’t turn them out until, well, maybe 7, or 8, or even 9 p.m. Or, basically, whenever the last child was safely on the way home.

“He treated those kids like his own,” said his older brother, former major league baseball player Odie Davis III.

Stricken with a heart attack, Nate Davis passed away on Jan. 4. The personable neighborhood civic leader was 64.

In all, Davis spent 32 years working with the YMCA, including several at the end of his tenure in a fundraising capacity for all ‘Y’ branches in the city.

“He had a way of talking to people to get that money out of ‘em,” said former Davis-Scott administrator Rufus Miller. “He’d be letting ‘em know that it was for the kids. He knew how to get those funds … with the proper conversation.

“He inherited that from his dad.”

His father was Odie Davis Jr., who founded a community service organization in 1944 known as the Alamo Branch YMCA. Originally, the Alamo Y was located on Sycamore Street near St. Paul’s Square. Later, it moved into a building at 1230 E. Commerce.

Today, the Davis-Scott YMCA – named after Davis Jr. and S.T. Scott, an educator — sits on an expansive plot of land at the intersection of Iowa Street and S. New Braunfels Ave. A sign on the brick façade outside says it all, ‘Safe Place.’

The center is a neighborhood oasis, with activities for all ages, including early learning childcare and after school programs, plus education and leadership classes for teens, along with yoga and pilates and water aerobics for adults.

Back in the day, the Alamo Branch YMCA of the 1940s was equally functional. It served a variety of needs.

Not only was it a recreation center, but also, in the days of segregation, African-Americans who traveled into the city and couldn’t stay at hotels had an option — they could stay at the ‘Y’ near St. Paul’s Square.

“My dad,” Odie Davis III said, “would house ‘em and feed ‘em.”

Davis III, a shortstop who played in 17 games for the Texas Rangers in 1980, said his father told him that he worked with “dignitaries and doctors” sympathetic to the plight of African-American travelers to help fund the operation.

In the ensuing years, Odie Davis Jr. and his wife, Nadine, started a family and had three children. The oldest was Norma. Then came Odie III. Finally, Nathaniel was born a few years later, in 1957.

As the kids grew older, Odie Davis III said he and his brother bonded with sports, throwing a baseball around on the side of the family’s yard on Montana Street. Or, across the road, in a cemetary, which also served as a recreation-oriented green space.

“There was a baseball field and a football field over there,” Davis III said.

The brothers also would spend a lot of time at the ‘Y’ down at 1230 East Commerce. Before school. After school. “We spent all of our life at the YMCA with our dad,” Davis III said.

Asked about his favorite memories of growing up with his brother, Davis III said, basically, all of them. “My brother was the world to me.”

Added Davis III, “We participated in every sport that was around. Our father was trying to break that barrier (of segregation), so we mostly had to play within the YMCA system. We never got out to expose our (talents, in other leagues). So, the Y became a haven.

“Everybody used to go out to the Y camp. You had players from the West Side. They had leagues over there that my dad started. It was camp Alamo. That’s where we (played) our baseball and sports, out there.”

Life took on some dramatic changes for the Davis kids in 1975. That was the year their dad died.

Nate would leave town that same year to attend school at Prairie View A&M, while Odie III was drafted by the Rangers in 1977. Odie III would employ the work ethic taught by his father to make the major leagues with the Rangers briefly in September and October of 1980, and he played professionally through 1982.

Nate, meanwhile, returned to San Antonio to follow in his dad’s footsteps, according to the family’s obituary. Not only did he work at the ‘Y,’ he also played for and later sponsored the semi-pro Denver Heights Bears, a team that his father helped establish in the ‘50s.

In a tenure with the team that lasted some two decades into the late 1990s, Odie III said, the Bears won a city title under Nate’s leadership in 1994.

Nate also was an enthusiastic community organizer. He was a principal in San Antonio’s Martin Luther King Day march, one of the largest in the nation. Each year, the family’s obituary said, he promoted scholarship funds for local youth tied to the event. In 2017, he was the MLK commission chair for the 30th anniversary march.

Mostly, though, Nate loved to work with the children at the YMCA. Combined with his father’s 30 years with the organization and Nate’s own 32, the family’s influence in the community at large has been undeniable.

“I think, culturally, it was a pretty aggressive impact,” Odie Davis III said. “That’s what it was all about. My parents (were) always trying to teach us, (me, my sister) and brother, that you got to try to bring up the neighborhood. You got to try to help. It takes a village, as they used to say.

“That was one of the principles that my dad would teach us, and my brother did it, too. He was always taking care of the kids.”

Arrangements

VISITATION: Friday, Jan. 14, 2022 5-7 p.m.; WAKE SERVICE: 6-6:30 p.m..

Lewis Funeral Home

811 S. W.W. White Road

San Antonio, Tx.

FUNERAL: Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022 11 a.m.

Second Baptist Church

3310 E. Commerce

San Antonio, Tx.

INTERMENT: Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022 9:45 a.m.. SHELTER #5

Fort Sam Houston National Cemetary

1520 Harry Wurzbach

San Antonio, Tx. 78209

Young, 49ers fend off a Roadrunners rally to win, 62-53

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Jahmir Young scored 15 and Syracuse transfer Robert Braswell added 14 Saturday as the Charlotte 49ers turned back the energetic but short-handed UTSA Roadrunners, 62-53.

Young, the leading scorer in Conference USA, hit only 4 of 13 shots from the field.

But with a well-rounded game, he helped to hand the Roadrunners their fourth straight loss with six rebounds, four assists and two steals.

In a road game for UTSA played at Charlotte’s Halton Arena, only a few fans turned out due to impending bad weather and the Covid-19 threat.

The Roadrunners, playing without three starters, seemed to take advantage of the lack of energy in the building by erasing most of a 19-point deficit.

Down 32-13 early, they came back to pull within 42-37 with 10 minutes left.

In the end, without Jordan Ivy-Curry, Cedrick Alley Jr. and Dhieu Deing, they didn’t have enough firepower to sustain the momentum.

Deing (pro ball aspirations) and Alley (academics) are no longer with the team. They won’t be back this season. Ivy-Curry (Covid protocols) could return next week.

UTSA was concerned coming in that Charlotte’s offensive style, with cuts and back-cuts, would pose a problem.

While the 49ers didn’t hit a high percentage of shots from the field (34.7 percent), they did force their way to the free-throw line, where they hit 20 of 24, including 14 of 18 in the second half.

Another problem for the Roadrunners centered around decisions they made with the ball when they had it close to the basket.

A 13-1 lead for UTSA in second-chance points likely could have been an even wider margin, given a massive 19-5 edge in offensive rebounding for the Roadrunners.

Looking back, the Roadrunners probably wished they had either taken the ball stronger to the basket on the put-back attempts, or they should have dribbled out and re-started the possession.

Records

UTSA 7-11, 0-5
Charlotte 9-5, 2-0

Coming up

The Roadrunners were scheduled to return to San Antonio Saturday night. In coming days, they’ll begin preparations for a road game at UTEP on Thursday of next week.

Jan. 20 — UTSA at UTEP, 8 p.m.
Jan. 23 — UTEP at UTSA, 3 p.m.
Jan. 27 — FIU at UTSA, 7 p.m.
Jan. 29 — FAU at UTSA, 1 p.m.

Notable

UTSA forward Aleu Aleu apparently suffered an injury in the first half and didn’t return.

The Roadrunners shot 29.4 percent from the field (20 of 68). From three-point distance, they hit only 12.5 percent (2 of 16). Christian Tucker emerged as UTSA’s leading scorer with 10 points. Without the team’s other primary scoring threats on the floor, junior center Jacob Germany faced traps and double teams most of the afternoon, and as a result he hit only 2 of 9 shots.

Freshman Lamin Sabally and sophomore Lachlan Bofinger supplied good energy when they were on the floor. Sabally scored six points and pulled down 12 rebounds. Bofinger had six points and nine rebounds.

Old Dominion blows out UTSA, 83-51, in Norfolk

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The Old Dominion Monarchs hammered the short-handed UTSA Roadrunners with a 19-2 run in the second half Thursday night en route to an easy 83-51 victory in Conference USA men’s basketball.

In the game played at Norfolk, Va., the Roadrunners were playing without starters Cedrick Alley, Jr., and Jordan Ivy-Curry and still were within 13 points with 16 minutes left.

The Monarchs answered by turning up the intensity behind Jaylin Hunter and C.J. Keyser to push the lead to 30, at 61-31, with 10:38 remaining.

From there, UTSA was doomed to an 0-4 start in conference, with one loss by 32, one by 28 and another by 16. Old Dominion shot 62 percent from the field on the way to a 2-0 C-USA record.

The Roadrunners shot 39 percent from the field. They hit only 1 of 13 from three-point range. Erik Czumbel scored a season-high 16 for UTSA and Jacob Germany 12.

For the Monarchs, Austin Trice had 19, while Hunter and Keyser added 16 apiece. Combined, the threesome hit 22 of 32 shots from the floor.

“Never got any rhythm going offensively, and defensively, it was pretty disappointing,” UTSA coach Steve Henson told the team’s radio broadcast.

Records

UTSA 7-10, 0-4
Old Dominion 7-8, 2-0

Schedule

Saturday — UTSA at Charlotte, noon

Pre-game

When the Roadrunners stepped on the court against the Monarchs, they were without two starters, power forward Cedrick Alley Jr. and guard Jordan Ivy-Curry.

A UTSA spokesman said in a text that Alley is out for the year because of academic eligibility. Ivy-Curry is in Covid protocols, he added.

Alley played 15 games and started 14 for the Roadrunners. He averaged 9.3 points and a team-leading 6.8 rebounds. With Alley out, it means that the Roadrunners have lost two starters for the season in the last two weeks.

Last week, UTSA announced that Dhieu Deing was no longer on the team and planned to pursue a professional career. Deing was UTSA’s leading scorer with 15.3 points per game.

Ivy-Curry apparently did not travel, so he will be out a minimum of two games, against Old Dominion and against Charlotte on Saturday. It’s the second time that Ivy-Curry, the team’s second-leading scorer, averaging 15.1, has been in Covid protocols this season.

He also sat out two games in December.

The game at Old Dominion marked the first of three straight for the Roadrunners in conference away from home.

First half

Old Dominion built a 33-21 lead in the first half. Perhaps predictably, the Monarchs jumped on the Roadrunners early, forging leads of 7-0 and 16-2. Outside of scoring bursts from Erik Czumbel and Jacob Germany, UTSA trailed by double digits for most of the rest of the half. Forward Austin Trice hit 7 of 7 shots from the field for 15 points to lead the Monarchs. As a team, ODU hit 15 of 25 for 60 percent. UTSA was 7 of 25 for 28 percent. Czumbel hit 5 of 7 for 11 points.

UTSA’s conference opener at Middle Tennessee postponed

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Middle Tennessee men’s basketball has announced that its Conference USA home games scheduled for this weekend against UTSA and UTEP have been postponed due to positive COVID-19 tests within the Blue Raiders’ program.

The Middle Tennessee – UTSA game was set for Thursday afternoon. Middle Tennessee – UTEP was scheduled for Saturday. Both games were set for the Murphy Center in Murfreesboro.

All Middle Tennessee players have been vaccinated, according to a news release on the school’s website.

C-USA will work to reschedule the games at later dates. The Blue Raiders’ next scheduled games are Jan. 6 at Rice and Jan. 8 at North Texas.

UTSA is scheduled to play Saturday, on the road in Alabama, against the UAB Blazers. The Roadrunners (6-6) and the Blazers (10-3) are set to tip off at 3 p.m.

Hot-shooting Illinois State rolls past UTSA, 81-64

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Junior guard Antonio Reeves produced 21 points and 10 rebounds as the Illinois State Redbirds downed the short-handed UTSA Roadrunners, 81-64, Tuesday afternoon in Normal, Ill.

Missouri Valley Conference-based Illinois State shot 55 percent from the field, including 59 percent in the second half, to subdue UTSA.

The Redbirds led by 11 points at halftime and pumped the advantage to as many as 23 twice with about 10 minutes remaining.

Playing without three players, the Roadrunners stayed in the game for most of the first half before fading to their second straight loss.

In the end, they couldn’t keep pace with the Redbirds, falling to 0-2 without starting point guard Jordan Ivy-Curry.

Ivy-Curry and reserve forward Aleu Aleu have been out the last two games in Covid-19 protocols.

Reserve center Phoenix Ford didn’t play as he prepares for the birth of his first child, a school spokesman said in a text.

Center Jacob Germany led the Roadrunners with 17 points and five rebounds. Dhieu Deing, the team’s leading scorer, had a tough day with five of 16 shooting. He finished with 14 points.

Reserve guard Christian Tucker came off the bench for a career-high 12 points.

Once again, offense was a struggle for the Roadrunners, who finished with 37 percent shooting. UTSA hit only 3 of 20 attempts from 3-point territory.

Records

Illinois State 8-5
UTSA 6-6

First half

Behind the outside shooting of Reeves, the Redbirds shot 51 percent from the field and rolled to a 39-28 lead at intermission.

Illinois State was effective in transition and in half court sets in hitting 17 of 33 shots in the opening 20 minutes.

UTSA started with a burst of energy on both ends of the floor to take a 10-7 lead. Deing hit a three-pointer and Germany nailed two baskets, including a converted three-point play.

From there, the Redbirds controlled the action, with Reeves hitting six of eight from the field and two 3-pointers.

Reeves, a 6-6 junior guard, finished the half with 14 points and six rebounds. His 3-point shot with 5:11 remaining lifted the Redbirds into a 32-20 lead with 5:11 remaining.

For UTSA in the first half, Germany had nine points. Cedrick Alley Jr. had six points and five rebounds. The Roadrunners were shooting 38.7 percent from the field.

Notable

A UTSA home game against Our Lady of the Lake, originally scheduled for Wednesday night, has been postponed because of Covid issues in the OLLU program.

So, for the time being, the next game on the Roadrunners’ schedule is Dec. 30, when they travel to play at Middle Tennessee State in the Conference USA opener.

Quotable

“They got a bunch of guys that can shoot the basketball, and they got some transition buckets. We just couldn’t slow them down,” UTSA coach Steve Henson told the team’s radio broadcast. “Our offensive struggles were pretty apparent in both halves. (Christian Tucker) was the one bright spot there. Gave us some great penetration on multiple occasions.”

On the break for Christmas, Henson said he will give his players the rest of the week off with a plan to return to practice on Sunday.

“We’re not playing the way we want to, but our guys are doing a pretty good job of staying together,” Henson said. “They understand that we’re not there, but we’re not that far off.”

When the team gathers again to resume workouts, Henson said he hopes to have everyone back.

“It’s a fresh start,” Henson said. “We got to take the positives and build on ’em. Got to stay together. Got to keep getting better. Hopefully we’ll get Jordan and Aleu back (and) get Phoenix back.”

Added Henson: “It’s (about) to get real, real hard, real real soon. But I think our guys are going to be up for it.”

Taking a look at talent from the 210 in Division I men’s basketball

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Here is a glance at players from San Antonio area high schools in NCAA Division I men’s basketball:

Men

Shelby Adams, Texas State, 6-3 senior guard from Judson

Clevon Brown, FAU, 6-8 senior forward from Churchill; transfer from Vanderbilt

Bryon Armstrong, Incarnate Word, 6-2 freshman from Antonian

Tristan Clark, SMU, 6-10 senior forward from Wagner; transfer from Baylor

Marques Gates, Houston Baptist, 6-foot freshman guard from Clemens

Jalen Jackson, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 5-11 junior guard from Wagner; transfer from North Texas

A&M-Corpus Christi guard Jalen Jackson playing at the UTSA Convocation Center on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021. - photo by Joe Alexander

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi guard Jalen Jackson, in action earlier this season at UTSA. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Ja’Sean Jackson, Abilene Christian, 6-0 freshman guard from Wagner

Ellis Jefferson, Lamar, 6-0 sophomore guard from Brandeis

Gerald Liddell, Alabama State, 6-8 junior forward from Steele; transfer from Texas

Kijana Love, Baylor, 6-1 senior guard from Steele; transfer from New Hampshire and St. Edward’s

Langston Love, Baylor, 6-5 freshman guard from Steele and Montverde Academy (Fla.)

Jayden Martinez, New Hampshire, 6-7 senior forward from Steele

Kevin McCullar, Texas Tech, 6-6 redshirt junior guard from Wagner

Ze’Rik Onyema, UTEP, 6-8 freshman forward from Jay

Jacob Teer, Incarnate Word, 6-7 freshman from St. Anthony

Stanley Umude, Arkansas, 6-6 senior from Warren; transfer from South Dakota

Ethan White, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 6-3 grad student guard from East Central

Brendan Wenzel, Wyoming, 6-7 sophomore guard from O’Connor; transfer from Utah

Dalen Whitlock, Texas State, 6-4 freshman guard from Clark

Players from San Antonio area who attended high school out of the area, now in NCAA Division I

Zach Clemence, Kansas, 6-10 freshman forward, hometown listed as San Antonio, from Findlay Prep (Nev.) and Sunrise Christian Academy (Kan.)

Micah Peavy, TCU, 6-7 sophomore forward, hometown listed as Cibolo, from Duncanville; transfer from Texas Tech

UT Rio Grande Valley buries short-handed UTSA, 68-50

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Steve Henson. UT Rio Grande Valley beat UTSA 68-50 on Friday, Nov. 17, 2021, at the Convocation Center. - photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA guard Dhieu Deing and coach Steve Henson had a rough night Friday as the Roadrunners lost at home by 18 points. With two UTSA players sidelined in health and safety protocols, UT Rio Grande Valley won 68-50 to snap a five-game losing streak. – Photo by Joe Alexander

With two players sidelined in health and safety protocols, the UTSA Roadrunners experienced a horrible start and an even worse finish to a basketball game played on their home court Friday night.

Objectively speaking, though, the UT Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros had a lot to do with Roadrunners’ misery both early and late.

The Vaqueros held the home team to 3 of 17 shooting in the game’s first eight minutes, and then they hit 57 percent from the field themselves in the second half to claim a 68-50 victory at the UTSA Convocation Center.

UTRGV’s determined play notwithstanding, the Roadrunners clearly missed starting point guard Jordan Ivy-Curry.

Both Ivy-Curry and reserve forward Aleu Aleu were forced to sit out in protocols designed to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Against slumping UTRGV, the Roadrunners failed to make up for what Ivy-Curry gives them as a scorer, as a defender and as a floor leader.

“We just missed some real, real easy (shots) early in the game, and then forced some things,” UTSA coach Steve Henson told the UTSA radio broadcast. “Didn’t get any rhythm.”

After falling behind by 13 points in the first half, the Roadrunners briefly found a spark, surging behind Jacob Germany to pull within one at intermission.

Cedrick Alley Jr. UT Rio Grande Valley beat UTSA 68-50 on Friday, Nov. 17, 2021, at the Convocation Center. - photo by Joe Alexander

Cedrick Alley Jr. came off the bench to produce 15 points and seven rebounds. Alley played 28 minutes despite missing a few practices earlier this week with an illness. – Photo by Joe Alexander

In the second half, they played well early, forging a 34-28 lead at one point. But after that, the Roadrunners just couldn’t hang on against a team intent on breaking a five-game losing streak.

The Vaqueros went on a monster 29-5 run to blow the Roadrunners out. During the streak, the Roadrunners went scoreless for nine agonizing minutes.

Associate head coach Mike Peck told Henson that UTSA went 15 straight possessions without a basket.

“You can be pretty good defensively, and you go 15 straight trips without putting the ball in the hole … at some point, it’s really, really going to stress your defense,” Henson said.

For the Vaqueros, the win was sweet. It was their first victory since Nov. 23 when they registered a 72-67 decision over Cal Fullerton. The Vaqueros had lost five in a row since then, falling in difficult road games at Illinois and at Texas along the way.

Coming into the game, UTSA was just starting to find a rhythm on offense. The Roadrunners had won five of seven games. In their last game, they hit 47 percent of their shots from the field in a five-point, neutral site victory over Sam Houston State.

Against UTRGV, the Roadrunners were held to a chilly 25.7 percent from the field. With the Vaqueros packing their defenders inside to stop the 6-foot-11 Germany, UTSA couldn’t capitalize, making only 2 of 21 from three-point territory.

Records

UTSA 6-5
UT Rio Grande Valley 5-7

Coming up

Tuesday — UTSA at Illinois State, 2 p.m.
Wednesday — Our Lady of the Lake at UTSA, 7 p.m.

Individuals

UTRGV — Forward Marek Nelson produced a team-high 13 points, seven rebounds and two steals. Guard BJ Simmons scored 12 and Xavier Johnson came off the bench to add 11. Both knocked down three, 3-point baskets. Justin Johnson, UTRGV’s leading scorer, was held to four points on 2 of 10 shooting.

UTSA — Center Jacob Germany had 16 points, nine rebounds and two blocks. Cedrick Alley Jr. went for 15 points, seven rebounds and three assists. Dhieu Deing, UTSA’s leading scorer, had his toughest night of the season with only seven points to break his string of 10 straight games in double figures. Deing was held to 3 of 18 shooting.

Notebook

The UTSA trainer delivered the news to Henson about Ivy-Curry and Aleu late Wednesday night. On Thursday, the two players were not at practice, and Henson acknowledged their status. Henson said he wasn’t sure how long they would be out. UTSA opens Conference USA play on Dec. 30 at Middle Tennessee State.

Jacob Germany. UT Rio Grande Valley beat UTSA 68-50 on Friday, Nov. 17, 2021, at the Convocation Center. - photo by Joe Alexander

Jacob Germany scored 16 points and pulled down nine rebounds. In his last four games, Germany has averaged 16.5 points and 7.8 boards. – Photo by Joe Alexander