Raekwon Horton had 19 points and nine rebounds Saturday as the Roadrunners notched their second straight win. – Photo by Joe Alexander
By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
For the UTSA Roadrunners, the confidence started to surge earlier this week when they rallied from 14 points down in the final three minutes to beat Merrimack College in Troy, Ala.
It clearly carried over to the waning moments Saturday afternoon at home against the Houston Christian Huskies, when the outcome hung precariously in the balance.
In the end, the Roadrunners made all the key plays and hit all their free throws down the stretch to pull out a 78-71 victory at the Convocation Center.
“I think our guys are confident in close games now,” UTSA coach Austin Claunch said. “They know they can do it. They know they’ve been there. I think they also know that if we don’t play better in these next two games, we’re not going to be in a close game. That’s the reality of the situation.”
Austin Claunch will take his team on the road next week to play at Saint Mary’s, Calif., on Tuesday and at Arkansas on Saturday. – Photo by Joe Alexander
It’s true. The Roadrunners’ schedule gets much tougher next week, when they play on the road Tuesday night in Moraga, Calif., against the Saint Mary’s Gaels, and again next Saturday in Fayetteville, Ark., against the John Calipari-coached Arkansas Razorbacks.
“We’re playing the two best teams on our non-conference schedule, really well-coached,” Claunch said. “I love that (the Roadrunners) are confident and understand that they can win close games, but I also understand that we got to get back in the gym. We got to clean up some things. We got to clean up communication.
“We’ve got to be better come Jan. 1 (for) Jan. 4 when we take off for Tulane for conference game No. 1.”
Guard Primo Spears and forward Raekwon Horton carried the Roadrunners against the Huskies. Spears scored 17 of his season-high 31 points in the first half, when UTSA built leads as large as 15 points before taking a 35-26 advantage into intermission.
Horton had 15 of his 19 points in the second half, as the Roadrunners gave up the lead late, only to surge on a 13-4 run in the last three minutes to pull it out.
A Julian Mackey-led rally carried the Huskies to the brink of what would have been their best win of the season. Mackey, a 6-2 guard, scored 14 of his team-high 20 points in the second half. He pushed the Huskies into three- and two-point leads late.
But while the Huskies started missing a few free throws at the end, the Roadrunners continued to make theirs, hitting 19 of 19 in the second half. As a result, UTSA saddled HCU with its fourth straight loss, all of them by single digits.
“In the first half, we were locked in,” Claunch said, “but the thing about college basketball, man, it can flip in a hurry. It doesn’t take a lot. They got confident and they have good individual players. Because they’re also aggressive, eventually they’re going to find somebody to get on a run, and that’s kind of what happened.”
Flanked by Spears and Horton in the interview room after the game, Claunch said the two seniors provided “great leadership” during a game that could have gone either way at the end.
“That’s what I expect from them,” Claunch said. “I expect them, when it’s hard, for them to (play with) toughness and to be unselfish. They’re (talking) in the huddle. They’re keeping guys together. They’re both guys that have won at a high level.
“We got a lot to learn. But it’s always good to learn in a win.”
First half
After scoring 29 points against Merrimack in Alabama on Wednesday, 6-foot-3 guard Primo Spears returned home and exploded for 17 in the first half against the HCU Huskies.
The Roadrunners shot 48.3 percent from the field and raced to a 35-26 lead.
Spears’ moves with the ball looked a little like those of Jhivvan Jackson, the Roadrunners’ all-time leading scorer who dazzled fans at the Convocation Center from 2017-21.
Spears would face up with the basket and go into quick, dribble dances that gave him space to operate, and then he’d toss up soft floating jumpers. He took 14 shots in the half and very few, if any, looked forced.
Notable
The Roadrunners entered the game leading the nation in steals per game (12.2) and were eighth in forced turnovers (18.2).
But, in the end, Huskies ballhandlers did a good job. UTSA finished with only four steals and HCU committed only six turnovers. On the other hand, UTSA more than lived up to its billing as a team that hits a high percentage from the free-throw line. It came into the day ranked 15th nationally at 80.2 percent and made 23 of 25 for 92 percent.
Spears entered as the nation’s 12th leading scorer at 22.2 ppg. After his season-high outburst, the Connecticut native and Florida State transfer is now averaging 23.7 points and four assists.
Sitting out the HCU game were UTSA scholarship players Jaquan Scott, Paul Lewis, David Hermes and Tai’Reon Joseph. Scott, recovering from a leg injury, is expected to play at Saint Mary’s. Claunch has said that Joseph, ineligible at the moment, might be available for Arkansas.
For the second straight game, freshman walk-on Baboucarr Njie played a significant role. After making his collegiate debut against Merrimack, the 6-foot-5 guard from Centerville, Ohio, played 20 minutes off the bench. He had two points, three rebounds and also an assist, a block and a steal.
Primo Spears celebrates after the Roadrunners close out the Houston Christian Huskies in the final seconds. – Photo by Joe Alexander.
