By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
Six-foot-three guard Romy Levy came off the bench to score 21 points Wednesday night as the South Florida Bulls defeated UTSA, 75-63, to snap the Roadrunners’ 10-game winning streak.
In the game contested on the Bulls’ home floor in Tampa, Fla., UTSA played without Jordyn Jenkins, a player of the year candidate in the American Athletic Conference.
Jenkins sat out the final quarter of UTSA’s last game, which was last Wednesday in San Antonio. The leading scorer in the American fell late in the third quarter against Tulsa and didn’t return.
The 6-foot senior dressed out and was on the bench at South Florida but didn’t get into the game.
A UTSA spokesman confirmed after the game that Jenkins was “banged up” in the Tulsa game. He said she sat out against South Florida for “precautionary reasons.”
The Roadrunners return home to play the Temple Owls Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Convocation Center. The spokesman said Jenkins is day to day.
Even without their leading scorer and rebounder, the Roadrunners stayed close to the Bulls for most of the night. Led offensively by Cheyenne Rowe and Sidney Love, they were within three at halftime and within seven at the end of three quarters.
After a three pointer by Nina De Leon Negron with 7:01 remaining, it was a four-point game, as South Florida looked a little rattled with only a 56-52 advantage.
From there, the Levy and the Bulls took over.
Levy scored nine points down the stretch as the home team pulled away. Sammie Puisis scored 16 and Carla Brito had 14 for the Bulls, who exacted a measure of revenge after the Roadrunners ended their season last March in the quarterfinals of the AAC tournament.
Mama Dembele, a point guard, had a successful night with eight points and 11 assists for South Florida.
Not only did she run an offense that shot 58 percent from the field against the Roadrunners, she was the primary defender on De Leon Negron and played well. De Leon Negron finished with nine points on two for 10 shooting.
For the Roadrunners, Rowe started for Jenkins on the front line and scored 15 points on six of 11 shooting. Love added 14 points on a seven-for-11 night. De Leon Negron, one of UTSA’s leaders all season, had nine points, six rebounds and three assists.
Notable
The 10-game streak was tied for the second longest in UTSA program history, with the team’s last loss coming on Dec. 16 at Stanford.
Quotable
“They were better than us tonight,” UTSA coach Karen Aston told the team’s radio broadcast. “Sometimes you just don’t match the moment. And, they were just better than we were. They’ve played like this some. Obviously I watched a lot of film on them, and there were games when they looked like this and there were games that they didn’t. This is just one of those games they played really well. Kudos to them. They played better than we did.”
Records
UTSA 17-3, 8-1
South Florida 14-8, 7-2
Coming up
Temple at UTSA, Saturday, 2 p.m.
Notable
North Texas won at home Wednesday night, edging Temple 70-67. As a result, UTSA and North Texas are tied for first in the AAC at 8-1. South Florida is 7-2, followed by Temple and Tulane, both 6-3. Tulane also won at home Wednesday, knocking off FAU, 68-52.
First half
With Jenkins watching from the bench, the Roadrunners played two quarters of solid defense. But the Bulls also did well on the defensive end and took a 28-25 lead into the break at intermission.
Puisis, who sat out with an injury in two losses to UTSA last season, led all scorers with nine points on three of seven shooting from the field. She hit one of two from three.
Love led the Roadrunners with eight points on four of five shooting. Without Jenkins on the floor, the Roadrunners shot 40 percent from the field.