Jhivvan Jackson scores 30 points in his Spanish league debut

Jhivvan Jackson. UTSA beat Southern Miss 78-72 in Conference USA action at the Convocation Center on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021. - photo by Joe Alexander

Guard Jhivvan Jackson, shown here in a file photo from the 2020-21 UTSA basketball season, made his professional debut last week in Spain. — Photo by Joe Alexander.

Jhivvan Jackson, UTSA’s all-time scoring leader, had 30 points and four assists in 26 minutes in his professional debut for Club Basquet Menorca in the third-tier Spanish league LEBA Plata, the school’s athletics media relations department reported.

A native of Bayamon, Puerto Rico, Jackson debuted with Basquet Menorca last week, on Wednesday.

Jackson played at UTSA for four seasons through the 2020-21 season and scored 2,551 points in his career, a performance that has been established as an NCAA Division I record among players born in Latin America.

The 6-foot guard’s point total in college is also the UTSA basketball school record, and it places Jackson at No. 52 overall on the Division I list.

In leading the Roadrunners to the Conference USA tournament last spring, Jackson suffered a shoulder injury, and he opted to rehabilitate it and not play professionally until recently.

The current UTSA coaching staff, led by Steve Henson, recruited Jackson and Keaton Wallace in the same class.

They both debuted for the Roadrunners in the 2017-18 season and became one of the highest-scoring duos in NCAA history.

Wallace left UTSA with 2,080 points, which is No. 2 in school history. He plays now for the Agua Caliente Clippers in the NBA G League, averaging 18.9 points, 5.9 rebounds and 5.0 assists, according to basketball-reference.com.