By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
Showcasing equal parts effort, poise and skill in the clutch, the UTSA women erased a 10-point deficit in the final 3:32 Wednesday afternoon to stun the Grand Canyon (Ariz.) Lopes, 65-64, in the Hoopfest Women’s Basketball Challenge.
“Oh, man,” UTSA coach Karen Aston said later. “That was crazy.”
Cheyenne Rowe scored 10 of her career-high 20 points in the final two minutes as the UTSA Roadrunners came from behind to beat the Grand Canyon Lopes. – File photo by Joe Alexander
UTSA senior forward Cheyenne Rowe scored 10 of her team- and career-high 20 points in the last 2:06 as the Roadrunners came back on the Lopes and left Frisco’s Comerica Center with a split of two games in the multi-team event.
She knocked down two free throws with seven seconds left to account for the final score. On the other end, Grand Canyon forward Anisa Jeffries missed a shot from the paint as time expired.
On Monday, the Roadrunners played poorly in the opener, shot 29 percent from the field and turned it over 30 times, as the Auburn Tigers beat them easily, 59-42. Against Grand Canyon, they started fast and led the Lopes for most of the first three quarters.
In the fourth, the Lopes made a charge. Down by two to start the quarter, they hit three three-pointers and outscored the Roadrunners 19-7 in the first seven minutes. A triple by Julia LaMendola splashed with 3:32 remaining and boosted Grand Canyon into a 57-47 lead.
Undeterred, the Roadrunners made play after play in the clutch to pull it out. “I thought we established some leadership tonight,” Aston told Neal Raphael on the team’s postgame radio broadcast. “For the first time, I thought we rose up and kind of carried our young guys.
“Cheyenne and Ereauna Hardaway, they rose to the top as far as leadership, and we needed that. We needed to see who could do that. This was really good for us.”
Faced with the 10-point deficit, UTSA called on junior transfer Jayda Holiman, who was making her first start of the season. The younger sister of former UTSA men’s team guard Adante’ Holiman initiated the late uprising with a three.
After a Lopes turnover, the Roadrunners rebounded three of their own misses on one possession and turned it into two Rowe free throws. When Rowe hit two with 2:06 remaining, Grand Canyon’s lead had been trimmed to five.
Grand Canyon guard Chloe Mann made it a seven-point game at 59-52 when she drew a foul and hit two free throws. On the next possession, the Lopes had a chance to boost the spread back to 10, but LaMendola misfired on a three.
Jayda Holiman earned her first start of the season and responded with 12 points and eight rebounds. – File photo by Joe Alexander
UTSA scored the next five points on a banked-in three by Rowe and two free throws by sophomore Emilia Dannebauer. In response, LaMendola dialed up another shot from long distance, and this one hit to put the Lopes up 62-57 with 49 seconds left.
Undaunted, the Roadrunners pushed it the other way and answered with a Damara Allen three, off an assist from Ereauna Hardaway.
Trailing by only two at that point, the Roadrunners didn’t need to foul, but they did, putting Ale’jah Douglas on the line. She hit two, boosting the Lopes into a 64-60 advantage with 36 seconds remaining.
UTSA answered again with – who else? – Rowe, who buried a three to bring UTSA to within one. After a couple of timeouts with 31 seconds left, the Lopes made their last costly mistake, as Jeffries turned it over on an errant pass.
The Roadrunners gained possession, put the ball in Rowe’s hands, and the 6-foot-2 native of Canada drew a foul from Holly Griffiths. Rowe sank both freebies with seven seconds left to give the Roadrunners the lead and, ultimately, their most satisfying victory of the season.
UTSA pulled off the comeback despite standout center Idara Udo fouling out with 6:49 remaining.
“It was kind of a chess match for awhile with Idara being in foul trouble,” Aston said. “And, just fatigue. You know, we’re not a very deep bunch. We kind of have to mix and match sometimes. You know, I thought they hung in there with it, and we went to the press late.
“Obviously we can’t do that the whole game. I told them when we do it, they got to sell out on it, and they did that.”
Records
Grand Canyon 1-6
UTSA 3-3
Coming up
UNLV at UTSA, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 6:30 p.m.
Notable
Shuffling the starting lineup after a loss on Monday to the Auburn Tigers, the UTSA Roadrunners bounced out to a 28-23 lead at intermission against the Grand Canyon (Ariz.) Lopes at the Hoopfest Women’s Basketball Challenge.
On the last day of the multi-team event in Frisco, in the DFW area, the Roadrunners installed guard Jayda Holiman into the starting lineup, and Holiman responded with 12 points and eight rebounds. She knocked down four three pointers for her second straight game in double figures.
Damara Allen also contributed 12 points and six rebounds. Allen, a sophomore from Aurora, Colo., made two of UTSA’s season-high nine triples. In all, the Roadrunners made nine of 15 from beyond the arc to offset 10 threes by the Lopes.
In many ways, point guard Ereauna Hardaway was the glue, producing seven points, four assists and three rebounds in 32 minutes.
Once again, though, Cheyenne Rowe led the Roadrunners with an all-around performance.
She had seven rebounds, a block and a steal in 38 minutes. Hitting five of 12 from the field and two of three from distance, she also sank all eight of her free throws. Notably, she was only nine of 17 at the line coming into the game.
Julia LaMendola connected on five triples and led the Lopes with 21 points. Anisa Jeffries scored 12 and Chloe Mann and Ale’jah Douglas had 11 apiece.
The loss was the Lopes’ sixth of the season, but their 1-6 record is deceiving, in that they’ve dropped games to powers South Carolina and Oregon on the road and to Atlantic Coast Conference entry Cal on a neutral site. South Carolina is the No. 2 team in the nation.
Last year, Grand Canyon finished 32-3 and lost to Baylor in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Records
Grand Canyon 1-6
UTSA 3-3
Coming up
UNLV at UTSA, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 6:30 p.m.
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