Florida Atlantic starts fast, then holds off UTSA, 80-71

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.