Knee injury to sideline UTSA’s Jhivvan Jackson for the season

The season for record-setting UTSA freshman guard Jhivvan Jackson has come to an end.

“Unfortunately, Jhivvan suffered a knee injury that will require surgery,” coach Steve Henson said in a news release. “This is a season-ending injury.

“Jhivvan was having a terrific season for us. We have a fantastic team of athletic trainers and doctors who will take great care of him.”

Photo caption: UTSA’s Jhivvan Jackson (left) poses after a team practice with his grandfather, Flor Melendez, a former Puerto Rico national team coach.

Leading a hoops resurgence

Jackson suffered the injury in the opening minutes of UTSA’s last game on Saturday night, a 74-64 home victory over Louisiana Tech.

The 6-0 guard from Puerto Rico had a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exam on Monday, and UTSA released the results Tuesday morning.

In 29 games, Jackson led UTSA to a 17-12 record, the most wins in a season for the Roadrunners in six years.

He also set the UTSA freshman scoring record with 534 points.

His effort surpassed the previous mark of 483 established 19 years ago by former Spurs player Devin Brown.

Brown’s first year at UTSA out of West Campus High School was in 1998-99.

Jackson also made his mark nationally, averaging 18.4 points for he fifth highest average among freshmen in NCAA Division I.

Freshmen ranking ahead of Jackson in the latest Division I scoring list include Oklahoma’s Trae Young (28.3), Howard’s RJ Cole (23.6), Duke’s Marvin Bagley III (20.7) and Arizona’s Deandre Ayton (19.9).

Young leads all scorers in Division I.

Looking to the future

But in UTSA’s 97-85 loss at OU earlier this season, Jackson had 31 to Young’s 28.

“Jhivvan’s support from his family is terrific, and he has an extremely bright future with us,” Henson said.

UTSA closes out the regular season this week with road games at North Texas on Thursday and at Rice on Saturday.

The Conference USA tournament is scheduled March 7-10 in Frisco.

Jackson was born in Bayamon Puerto Rico, and played on three Puerto Rican junior national teams.

He moved to the Dallas area in middle school and attended Euless Trinity High School.