The UTSA Roadrunners traveled to Florida on Thursday night to open a four-game run in Conference USA bonus play.
The FAU Owls sent them home with a frustrating loss.
Starting fast, the Owls surged into a 22-point lead in the first 11 minutes en route to an 80-71 victory over the Roadrunners at Boca Raton.
Down by 23 in the second half, the Roadrunners pulled to within nine in the final two minutes behind a Jhivvan Jackson scoring spree.
But even with Jackson producing 38 points, it wasn’t enough, as UTSA fell to 2-5 in its last seven games.
Michael Forrest drained six shots from beyond the arc and finished with 21 for the Owls.
Records
UTSA 6-9, 12-16
Florida Atlantic 8-8, 16-13
Coming up
UAB at UTSA, Sunday, 2 p.m.
Notable
The Roadrunners close out the regular season with three games, starting with a rematch against the UAB Blazers Sunday at the Convocation Center.
UAB won at the Convo on Jan. 30, beating UTSA 76-68.
In the last few days of the regular season, UTSA travels to meet Old Dominion on March 4. UTSA finishes its regular-season on March 7 at home against Marshall.
At stake down the stretch is improved seeding in the C-USA tournament. Currently, the Roadrunners are 10th.
The C-USA tourney is set for March 11-14 in Frisco, with the winner earning an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament.
Quotable
“We really got off to a bad, bad start there on both ends of the floor. They were making shots and we weren’t. I thought we were getting some good looks there early. (But) they built the lead and got real, real comfortable.” — UTSA coach Steve Henson, in an interview on the team’s radio broadcast.