By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
The UTSA women’s basketball team set a school record with a 12-2 start to the season after claiming a 60-53 victory Saturday over the Tulsa Golden Hurricane.
Jordyn Jenkins produced 30 points and seven rebounds for the Roadrunners, who won their fifth game in a row and improved to 3-0 in the American Athletic Conference.
In addition, UTSA forward Maya Linton highlighted the defensive effort, holding Tulsa star Delanie Crawford to 10 points on three of 13 shooting from the field.
Earlier this week, Crawford scored 36 points in a victory over East Carolina and 22 in a road loss at North Texas.
Notable
The team’s previous best start after 14 games was 11-3 in 1985-86, in the program’s fifth season of basketball.
Quotable
“Hard-fought game,” UTSA coach Karen Aston said on the team’s radio broadcast. “I thought both teams looked quite fatigued, really as the third and fourth quarter started rolling along.
“It’s just one of those games that, you know, I would have liked to have played a few more kids, because I thought we had some fatigue going on with our players. But we just couldn’t find a combination that was great tonight.”
Continued Aston: “I think (Tulsa) would say the same thing. Third game in six days. First week of conference play and you could really tell. I thought our team was just fourth-quarter tough.”
Aston said Linton “was fantastic” in shadowing Crawford, who was averaging 19 points a game.
“If you want to have a team that has a chance to do something special, you have to have a kid like Maya that is willing to step up and guard somebody’s best player … and not worry about anything else. You know, ‘My shot’s not going in. I turned the ball over, but I’m going to get back and guard the best player,’ and she did that today.
“That’s the reason why we won.”
First half
Jenkins scored 15 points to lead the mistake-prone Roadrunners to a 30-25 lead on the Golden Hurricane at intermission.
UTSA reserve forward Cheyenne Rowe also provided a lift with eight points on four of four shooting.
In an AAC contest played at the Reynolds Center in Tulsa, the Roadrunners also played well defensively, holding the explosive Golden Hurricane to 31 percent shooting from the field.
Crawford, the AAC’s leading scorer, hit two for seven shots from the field and was held to six points.
But the Roadrunners, who led by 11 points early, committed eight turnovers. Some were forced by the Tulsa defense but some came on tentative, hesitant execution. The Golden Hurricane scored five points off those miscues.
Kennedi Alexander came off the bench to lead the Golden Hurricane with eight points in the half.
Individuals
UTSA – Jordyn Jenkins hit nine of 15 from the field and 11 of 12 from the free-throw line. It was her second 30-point game of the season after scoring 30 at UTEP on Nov. 16. She had four games of 30 or more in her first year at UTSA, in 2022-23.
Tulsa – Sophomore guard Elise Hill led the Golden Hurricane with 15 points, four rebounds and two assists. For Crawford, her 10-point production was her second lowest of the season after she scored eight on the road at Missouri State on Nov. 10.
Records
Tulsa 7-8, 1-2
UTSA 12-2, 3-0
Coming up
Rice at UTSA, Wednesday, 6:30 p.m.
Wichita State at UTSA, Jan. 11, noon
Notable
UTSA gained a measure of redemption after allowing a 13-point, fourth-quarter lead to slip away in a 74-70 loss at Tulsa last season. The Roadrunners’ 3-0 start in conference is the best since the team started 3-0 in the Southland Conference in 2009-10.
In the AAC preseason poll, Tulsa was picked to finish fourth, with UTSA fifth. Tulsa finished 25-10 a year ago. Temira Poindexter, the AAC Player of the Year last season at Tulsa, is now playing for the 13th-ranked Kansas State Wildcats.