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Colorado men ride second-half surge, wallop UTSA, 88-64

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Point guard Barrington Hargress scored 10 of his 23 points in the first six minutes of the second half Saturday in Boulder, allowing the Big 12’s Colorado Buffaloes to pull away from the UTSA Roadrunners in an 88-64 victory.

Colorado (9-1) led by three points at intermission and then unleashed Hargress, a transfer from UC Riverside, to kick-start its high-scoring offense.

UTSA (4-6) couldn’t keep pace as the 6-foot-1 guard opened the second half with a three-pointer and then added a jumper and another three, all in the first three minutes.

Hargress followed with a layup, pushing Colorado’s lead to 14 points at the 14:01 mark. The Buffaloes led by as many as 27 points late in the game.

For the Roadrunners, guard Jamir Simpson produced another strong game with 20 points, six rebounds and five assists. Brent Moss and Daniel Akitoby supplied spark off the bench, with Moss scoring 11 and Akitoby 10.

UTSA has now lost three straight, all by more than 20 points. On the last day of November, the South Alabama Jaguars played zone defense primarily and won 82-58 at the Convocation Center.

Alabama, the 12th-ranked team in the nation, soundly defeated UTSA 97-55 last weekend in Tuscaloosa. Now, Colorado has piled on, using 62.2 percent shooting in the second half to win going away.

Coming in shooting 52 percent from the field and 41 percent from three, the Buffaloes nearly reached those numbers. They shot 49 percent for the game and 39 percent (9 of 22) behind the arc.

In areas of improvement, the Roadrunners played well defensively in the first half, holding a team that averages 88 a game to 35 points. In addition, they shot the ball better, hitting 39 percent and getting substantive contributions off the bench.

But it wasn’t enough to stop the program’s long losing streak against power conference competition. The loss was UTSA’s 30th straight against teams from the biggest revenue-producing conferences in the nation.

The Roadrunners haven’t won against a team from one of the financial majors since November of 2009 when they claimed a victory in Iowa City against the Big Ten’s Iowa Hawkeyes.

Records

UTSA 4-6
Colorado 9-1

Coming up

UTSA at Southern Cal, Wednesday, 8 p.m.

Notable

UTSA coach Austin Claunch said on the team’s radio broadcast that the game got away from his team early in the second half primarily because of some empty offensive possessions.

“Against good teams, if you take bad shots, and you don’t move (the ball), or you’re stagnant, they’re going to punish you on the other end, and that’s what happened,” Claunch said.

In the first eight minutes of the game, the Roadrunners held a surprising 13-12 lead. They were within one of two possessions for the remainder of the half.

“First 20 minutes, probably the best we’ve played this year,” Claunch said, “and the second 20, we got to figure out why that happened.”

UTSA men look for keys to unlock offensive potential

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Four days after his team journeyed out on the road and lost by 42 points to the 12th-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide, UTSA coach Austin Claunch paused on Thursday morning to review the experience for what it was.

Simply put, a vastly more talented team overwhelmed his Roadrunners in the first half en route to an easy win.

Austin Claunch. Southern Illinois Edwardsville (SIUE) beat UTSA 77-60 in men's basketball on Friday, Nov. 7, 2025, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA coach Austin Claunch leads his team into road games Saturday at Colorado and next Wednesday at Southern Cal. – File photo by Joe Alexander

With the Crimson Tide crashing the offensive glass and forcing turnovers, the point differential quickly reached double figures in the opening minutes and expanded to 39 by intermission.

But then, all of a sudden, the Roadrunners took a different tack to give the second half an entirely different feel.

UTSA’s offense loosened up and played well. The Roadrunners scored 38 points in the final 20 minutes while knocking down six shots from behind the arc, including three by freshman Dorian Hayes.

“We sort of just kept it simple and played with a little bit more pace,” Claunch said in a zoom conference. “I wouldn’t say (with) more freedom … But kind of just letting our hair down and going to the hoop.”

Still searching for the keys to unlock their offensive potential, the Roadrunners will continue the toughest stretch of road games on their schedule on Saturday afternoon against the high-scoring Colorado Buffaloes.

Records

UTSA 4-5
Colorado 8-1

Coming up

UTSA at Colorado, Saturday, 3 p.m.
UTSA at Southern Cal, Wednesday, 8 p.m.
Seattle at UTSA, Monday, Dec. 22, 2 p.m.
x-UTSA at FAU, Wednesday, Dec. 31, noon
x-American Conference opener

Offensive woes

To date, UTSA’s offense has been nothing less than streaky.

Last month, it seemed to be rounding into form when the Roadrunners scored 84 points in a road win at Denver. In their next game, they followed with a 103-70 victory at home against Southwestern Christian.

On a subsequent trip to Florida, they stumbled a bit in the opener of the Jacksonville Classic, losing 61-50 to Abilene Christian, only rise up and play well again the next day against Georgia Southern.

The Roadrunners revved the offense to hit 51 percent from the field in the second half of a 77-64 victory over the Eagles. Since then, though, they’ve struggled to score.

In consecutive losses to South Alabama (at home) and Alabama, the Roadrunners have averaged only 56.5 points on a combined 29.2 percent from the floor.

Their effort includes two halves in which they shot 25 percent or less. During the two-game stretch, only in the second half against the Crimson Tide did the Roadrunners reach the 40-percent level.

“It’s more on me,” Claunch said. “I’ve got to simplify this thing for our guys. Sometimes that’s the best thing you can do, is go back to your foundation.

“It’s better to be really good at one or two things than be OK at 10 things.

“We’ve got to identify who we are, the shots that we want to take and just get really, really good at things that get us those looks.”

Help apparently is on the way. TCU transfer Vasean Allette, considered the team’s top offseason pickup in the transfer portal, has returned to workouts.

“Vasean is back practicing,” Claunch said. “Hopefully we can have him as this thing gets nearer to conference play. I think he’s starting to approach being where he needs to be.”

Without saying exactly why Allette hasn’t played yet, Claunch confirmed that the 6-2 guard won’t be with the team at Colorado or USC, hinting that he could return on Dec. 22 at home against the Seattle Redhawks.

“We’re 100 percent behind him and continue to take the steps to get him back full go as we move closer to conference,” the coach said.

Notable

As the Roadrunners try to find answers on offense, the defense has held up fairly well, limiting opponents to 38.1 percent shooting from the field for the season.

Even though South Alabama and Alabama have totaled 179 points against UTSA over the past two games, the defensive base has been solid, limiting those two to a combined 41.4 percent shooting.

That number includes holding Alabama, one of the most explosive offenses in the nation, to 39 percent.

UTSA will need to be at its best defensively against the Buffaloes, who average 88.4 points on 52.1 percent shooting.

Coach Tad Boyle’s team is sixth in the nation from 3-point range, making 41 percent. Moreover, five players average between 11 and 15 points per game and four of them range from 6-feet-9 to 7-0.

Freshman guard Isaiah Johnson leads Colorado, averaging 15.3 points off the bench.