Tag Archives: men’s college basketball

UTSA’s Claunch to open the season against a ‘Phi Slama Jama’ legend

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Thirty-five-year-old UTSA coach Austin Claunch cut his teeth on the game of basketball in Houston, a decade or so removed from the crowd that grew up with ‘Phi Slama Jama’ in the 1980s.

Back in the day, while center Hakeem Olajuwon was perfecting the “Dream Shake” in the post under Coach Guy V. Lewis, he was flanked by the likes of Clyde “The Glide” Drexler, Larry Michaux and Michael Young.

At the University of Houston, the Phi Slama Jama Cougars reached the NCAA Final Four in 1983 and 1984 and established an identity that is remembered fondly today, even in an era when Coach Kelvin Sampson’s team always seems to arrive in March with 30 wins and a No. 1 seed.

All of which brings us around to Claunch and the second installment of his UTSA basketball reclamation project.

Young, once a burly, highly-skilled, left-handed shooting guard for the Cougars, is now in his second year as head coach of the nascent Houston-based program at the College of Biblical Studies.

His team, in its third year of existence, will be the opposition in the season opener for Claunch’s Roadrunners at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Convocation Center. Claunch said it’ll fun for him to coach against a guy with Young’s chops.

“Just understanding what he and those (Houston) teams did for the city,” Claunch said. “I would expect their team to play a lot like he did, just that pace, in that frenetic offensive style.”

“It’s going to be an interesting challenge on night one (for us), where (we’re) still trying to iron out some things defensively, and not turn the ball over … and be clean. I would imagine that they’re going to come in and push the pace.”

With 11 newcomers, the Roadrunners haven’t scratched the surface yet in becoming the team they hope to be.

They’ve lost twice to teams in the Southland Conference, first faltering in a neutral-site, closed scrimmage against the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks, and then coming up short with a spirited second-half comeback against the Incarnate Word Cardinals.

Claunch said his practices since the UIW exhibition have been good and that he’s excited for the week, which will include a home game Friday against SIU-Edwardsville.

“I just think we have a clear vision of what we need to do,” the coach said. “We’re much more clean on the things we expect. Our non-negotiables. And, obviously, when the lights turn on, you got to go perform. As coaches, we’ve got to have our guys better prepared.

“We certainly want to show that same fire and aggression that we have in practice, show that when the lights come on … I would expect to see that wholeheartedly on Wednesday and Friday.”

One bit of positive news for the Roadrunners has been the return to form of guard Austin Nunez, who sat out the UIW game with an undisclosed ailment.

A 6-foot-2 guard, the Arizona State transfer is expected to give the team a veteran presence, as well as a speed component.

“He’s been in (practice) all week and he looks great,” Claunch said. “He’ll be full go come Wednesday. He’s looked good. Listen, if (the exhibition) had been an NCAA tournament game, we probably would have gotten him out there.

“He really wanted to play, but knowing what we have coming up, what lies ahead, it was important for us to (hold him out). He’s such a competitor, and he’s only got one speed. He’s 100 percent every time he’s in the game.

“So, sometimes as a coach, you got to protect ’em from themself. He’s looked great in practice, and he’s ready to go. He’s excited for Wednesday.”

Nunez came out of high school in San Antonio at Wagner in 2022, when he averaged 28.5 points and 6.2 rebounds.

He spent his first season in college at Arizona State, transferred to Ole Miss the next year and then returned to Arizona State last year.

Coming up

Wednesday – College of Biblical Studies at UTSA men, 6 p.m.
Thursday – UTSA women at Texas Tech, 6 p.m.
Friday – SIUE at UTSA men, 12:30 p.m.
Saturday – UTSA women at Houston, 7 p.m.

Notable

The Roadrunners men on Friday will host SIU-Edwardsville, an Ohio Valley Conference team that won 22 games and reached the NCAA tournament last season.

UTSA men try to reverse fortunes by following ‘the code’

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Baboucarr Njie. UTSA basketball Rowdy Jam on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025, at the Convocation Center. - photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA sophomore Baboucarr Njie and his older brother, Mo, are two of UTSA’s four players returning from last year. UTSA finished 12-19 in 2024-25, in Austin Claunch’s first season as coach. – File photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Over the past few weeks, members of the UTSA men’s basketball team have talked about what has been described as their three “pillars” philosophy.

“Embrace adversity. (Strive to) be a great teammate,” they say. And, finally, “earn the right to win every day.”

It’s what one player has called “the code” to live by as the Roadrunners try to reverse the fortunes of a program that has suffered through four straight losing seasons.

“At the end of the day, we want to be able to win a championship and make it to March Madness,” UTSA sophomore Baboucarr Njie said at the American Conference tip-off event a few weeks ago. “I feel like living by the code each and every day, we’ll be able to get there.”

Most players this year are new to UTSA.

On the 15-player roster that will be unveiled Saturday afternoon in a home exhibition against the University of the Incarnate Word, 11 have never suited up in a game for the Roadrunners.

Playing the second game of an exhibition doubleheader — the UTSA women will tip off against Texas A&M-San Antonio at 1 p.m., followed by the men against UIW at 3:30 p.m. — the team will take the floor at the Convocation Center.

It’ll be opening day in an effort to convince skeptics in their own fanbase that they can re-write a troubling narrative that has been dogging Roadrunners men’s basketball for more than a dozen years.

Ever since UTSA started football and departed from the Southland Conference, men’s basketball has struggled.

The Roadrunners, starting in 2012-13, have stacked 10 losing seasons out of 13 in leagues ranging from the Western Athletic Conference (for one year), Conference USA (for 10) and the American (for the last two).

Even though most players in coach Austin Claunch’s second year on campus have just arrived on campus, at least one player says that they all know the story.

“Obviously UTSA hasn’t had very great seasons in the past couple of years, and our team knows that,” former San Antonio schoolboy standout Austin Nunez said. “So, we’re trying to (come in) with a different mentality, of just trying to go at whoever is in front of us.”

The game against UIW will not count on UTSA’s record. But it’s a jumping off point to the regular season, which will open Nov. 5 at home against the College of Biblical Studies.

The first game against NCAA Division I competition will come on Nov. 7 against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. Ever since the release of the American’s preseason poll a few weeks ago, UTSA players have been irritated with being picked 11th.

“My expectations are to win 20 games,” said Nunez, an all-state player at Wagner High School. “And, you know, you win 20 games and you’re in a great spot. That’s definitely the goal.”

The Roadrunners won 12 games last year and only 43 over the past four years, so a 20-win season would be a breakthrough.

“That’s something the school hasn’t done in a long time,” Nunez said. “Getting there is going to put us in the spot that we want to be in. And from there, we got to just take care of the rest.”

Claunch said his players, who have been together practicing since June, are eager to get their season started.

“Guys are just ready to go,” Claunch said. “Guys are ready to play. It’s kind of time of year that you’re in that scrimmage-exhibition kind of mode, and guys are excited to see somebody else (on the court).”

Mo Njie, a 6-foot-11 grad student, returns as one of the leaders of the team.

After going through Claunch’s offseason last summer, Babourcarr Njie’s older brother knows all about the pillars of success and, particularly, about the meaning of embracing of adversity.

He sat out most of last year with a foot injury.

Asked to explain the second pillar, to describe what it means to be a good teammate, center Mo Njie said it mostly boils down to just doing the right things on a day-to-day basis for the benefit of everyone in the locker room.

“Really, it goes on and off the floor,” he said. “Looking out for each other through ups and downs. Somebody dives on the floor, be the first person to sprint over and pick him up. Clapping for them, your know.

“Whether you’re playing or not, having a good mentality. Being positive. Have positive body language. Just being a good person overall. It doesn’t really take much to be a great teammate, but it’s something that is very under mind for a lot of people.”

What about earning the right to win, and doing it on a daily basis?

“You know, winning is not easy,” Mo Njie said. “You got to be able to come in every single day. You got to be disciplined. You got to be consistent and you got to be able to do whatever it takes to win. That means the little things, too.”

The little things?

“Guys got to get into the gym every day and get extra shots,” he said. “Communicate with each other on an elite level in practice. It’s going to mean a lot in the big games.

“Like, we got a lot of big games coming up in Alabama, Colorado and whatnot, so, going into those environments, we’re going to have to do the little things to put us on top in those games.”

Coming up

The San Antonio Challenge will tip off on Saturday at the Convocation Center, with Texas A&M-San Antonio playing the UTSA women at 1 p.m., followed by Incarnate Word against the UTSA men at 3:30 p.m.

UTSA men are pegged for an 11th-place finish in the American

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The UTSA Roadrunners will have something to prove this season in the American Conference men’s basketball race. UTSA was picked 11th out of 13 teams in the American preseason coaches’ poll. Roadrunners guard Vasean Allette, a newcomer at UTSA and a transfer from TCU, is a second-team choice in projections for individual honors.

Memphis, South Florida, Tulane and UAB are the favorites, in that order, according to the poll released Thursday morning.

American preseason coaches’ poll

1. Memphis (11) 143
2. South Florida (2) 128
3. Tulane 122
4. UAB 98
5. Wichita State 93
6. Florida Atlantic 80
7. North Texas 77
8. Tulsa 74
9. Temple 65
10. East Carolina 53
11. UTSA 32
12. Rice 27
13. Charlotte 22

Individual honors/projections

Player of the Year – Rowan Brumbaugh, G, Tulane
Freshman of the Year – Josiah Parker, G, Florida Atlantic

First team – Jordan Riley, Sr., G, East Carolina; Aaron Bradshaw, Jr., F, Memphis; Dug McDaniel, Sr., G, Memphis; Rowan Brumbaugh, R-Jr., G, Tulane*; Kenyon Giles, Sr., G, Wichita State.

Second team – Daimion Collins, R-Sr., F, South Florida; Izaiyah Nelson, Sr., F, South Florida; Vasean Allette, Jr., G, UTSA; Asher Woods, Sr., G, Tulane; David Green, Gr., F, Tulsa.

UTSA men come away with a signature victory over North Texas in Denton

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

After hanging on to beat the North Texas Mean Green 54-50 on Saturday in Denton, the UTSA Roadrunners handed first-year Coach Austin Claunch his biggest win at the school and the 100th of his career.

New UTSA men's basketball coach Austin Claunch was at the Roadrunners softball game on Tuesday, April 9, 2024, at Roadrunner Field to throw out the first pitch. - Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA’s Austin Claunch hit a milestone with his 100th win as a college head coach. – File photo by Joe Alexander

Center Jo Smith made a clutch defensive stop on North Texas’ last possession, and Raekwon Horton followed by knocking down two free throws with one second remaining to secure the win for the Roadrunners.

Horton finished with a season-high 23 points on eight of 11 shooting in 40 minutes. Primo Spears, battling a sore ankle, finished with 15 points. He hit three of seven from the 3-point arc. Marcus Millender scored 11.

Defensively, Smith finished with three steals and three blocks to lead the Roadrunners, who have posted a 4-3 record in their last seven AAC games.

For North Texas, forward Grant Newell scored a team-leading 14 points on six-for-six shooting. Guard Atin Wright, who scored 22 points against UTSA in the first meeting, was held to 10 on three of 12. Forward Brenan Lorient added 11 points.

Records

UTSA 10-11, 4-5
North Texas 16-5, 7-2

Coming up

Tulane at UTSA, Wednesday, 7 p.m.

Milestone

Claunch is in his first season at UTSA, but he is in his sixth overall in NCAA Division I, which includes five at Nicholls State. The coach posted a 90-61 record at Nicholls, a Southland Conference school in Thibodaux, La. He’s now 10-11 with the Roadrunners, which makes him 100-72 in his career after knocking off North Texas.

Notable

For UTSA, the win was significant on several levels. North Texas entered the game on a six-game winning streak, undefeated at home and tied for first in the American Athletic Conference. UTSA, meanwhile, was tied for ninth.

The Mean Green were 46th nationally on the NCAA’s Evaluation Tool, or, the NET, trailing only Memphis at No. 40 among AAC teams. Meaning, that this was UTSA’s highest-rated victory of the season.

Few could see it coming. Down to only eight scholarship players, UTSA had been pounded 94-74 on Wednesday in Boca Raton, Fla., and came in at No. 222 on the NET. The Roadrunners’ ranking was third to the last among AAC teams on the computer.

Moreover, the Mean Green journeyed to San Antonio on Jan. 18 and walloped the Roadrunners, 72-57. So, as expected, Claunch was feeling good about the outcome of the rematch as he talked to UTSA radio voice Andy Everett in the postgame.

The coach’s defensive scheme seemed to flummox the Mean Green. “We decided to go to some switching (on screens),” he said. “We were just saying, ‘Switch and compete.’ All week. You know, and just kind of man on man.

“They’re a hell of a team. You have so much respect for what they’ve built here. This crowd today, I mean, it was a really, really tough environment.”

The Roadrunners essentially won the game in the first half when they held the Mean Green to 13 points on five of 22 shooting from the field, including zero for 11 from three.

Remarkably, it was a half that resembled the game in San Antonio, except that in the first meeting, UTSA was held to 18 points.

UTSA entered the second half up 27-13.

“You’re giving yourself a cushion because you know they’re making a run,” Claunch said. “You know, similar to the game at our place. We were just able to make a couple of tough plays and shots.

“I think they’re as tough as anybody in the league, and I challenged our guys the last couple of days to embrace that. Embrace the pace. Embrace the physicality, and I think we did that.”

UTSA men surge in the last minute to down Temple, 88-79

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Primo Spears. UTSA beat Temple 88-79 in American Athletic Conference men's basketball on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Guard Primo Spears scored six of his 20 points in the final minute and 20 seconds to solidify UTSA’s 88-79 victory over the Temple Owls. – Photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The UTSA Roadrunners showed both resilience and resolve in the last one minute and 20 seconds, forcing two key turnovers and holding the Temple Owls to two free throws in claiming an 88-79 victory Saturday at the Convocation Center.

Holding on precariously to a one-point lead, UTSA outscored Temple 10-2 down the stretch for perhaps its biggest win in American Athletic Conference play this season.

Austin Claunch. UTSA beat Temple 88-79 in American Athletic Conference men's basketball on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA coach Austin Claunch praised his team’s ‘grit’ in delivering the first victory in school history over the Temple Owls, who rank sixth all time in NCAA Division I with 2,005 wins. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Highlighting the 80-second surge were Primo Spears, who hit a jumper and sank four free throws, and also Damari Monsanto and Jo Smith, who came up with deflections to blunt two Temple possessions.

Spears and Raekwon Horton scored 20 points apiece to lead five Roadrunners in double figures. Marcus Millender added 18 and Monsanto contributed 17, hitting five of UTSA’s 14 three-point field goals. Smith had 10 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks.

“This is a huge win, not just to kind of keep us in the race, but also, I have a ton of respect for coach (Adam) Fisher and Temple,” UTSA coach Austin Claunch said. “I’m pretty sure I’m right on this but I think they have the seventh most wins in college basketball history, so this is an incredible win for our program and for UTSA.”

According to the school’s pre-game information packet, Temple is now sixth on the victory list. Kentucky leads Division I men’s programs with 2,411, followed by Kansas (2,407), North Carolina (2,383), Duke (2,314), UCLA (2,018) and Temple (2,005).

The Owls came into San Antonio with an AAC victory over Memphis, the league’s preseason favorite, and they were one game out of first place.

“Again, we have a ton of respect for Temple,” Claunch said. “They’ve started off really well this year and they’re going to continue to win a lot of games. For us, this is a really hard stretch for us — two really hard opponents coming into this one where we lost close games.”

Damari Monsanto. UTSA beat Temple 88-79 in American Athletic Conference men's basketball on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Damari Monsanto hit five shots from behind the 3-point arc en route to 17 points and also made a key deflection to force a turnover in the last minute of the game. – Photo by Joe Alexander

A week ago today, the Roadrunners rallied late to within single digits of the North Texas Mean Green, only to fall 72-57 at home. Last Tuesday, they had a shot to tie on the final possession but lost in Birmingham to the UAB Blazers, 81-78.

Claunch said he “loved” how the Roadrunners started against the Owls. They jumped all over the visitors with defensive pressure and three-point shooting, building leads as large as 16 points three times in the first seven minutes.

After Temple rallied in the second half, it looked as if the Owls might overtake the short-handed Roadrunners, who were playing without starting guard Tai’Reon Joseph for the second straight game. Also, they’ve been without two post players for weeks, leaving them thin in the frontcourt.

Still, they found a way. “Just a gritty, tough win,” Claunch said.

Jamal Mashburn Jr. scored 10 of his team-high 20 points in the second half. The son of a former NBA star of the same name finished one point off his season scoring average. Forward Steve Settle produced 17 points and Zion Stanford 17. Point guard Quante Berry had 10 points and three assists.

Records

Temple 12-8, 4-3
UTSA 9-10, 3-4

Coming up

UTSA at Florida Atlantic, Wednesday, 6 p.m.
UTSA at North Texas, Saturday, Feb. 1, 5 p.m.

Notable

The win was UTSA’s first all time against Temple. In four meeting, the Roadrunners are now 1-3 against the Owls. Together in the same conference for the first time last season, the Owls won all three, including one in Philadelphia, one at the Convo in San Antonio and one at the AAC tournament in Fort Worth.

First half

Propelled by lights-out shooting from Raekwon Horton, Primo Spears and Marcus Millender, the UTSA Roadrunners raced to a 16-point lead in the first seven minutes and then hung on at the end to take a 43-35 advantage into the break.

Marcus Millender. UTSA beat Temple 88-79 in American Athletic Conference men's basketball on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Roadrunners sophomore Marcus Millender knocked down six of nine shots from the field, scored 18 points and passed for six assists against the Owls. – Photo by Joe Alexander

When Spears nailed a three pointer from the right wing with 12:45 left, the Roadrunners had constructed a 28-12 lead. Horton had scored 11 points in the spree.

The UTSA offense was cooking at that point because of a frenetic defensive effort and a fast pace. As the game slowed more to Temple’s preferred pace, the Owls started climbing back in the game.

Temple closed a 21-10 run with a Shane Dezonie jumper, pulling the visitors to within five. UTSA responded with a 5-2 mini-surge in the final minute.

Monsanto buried a three — the Roadrunners’ eighth of the half — and Millender finished with a driving finger roll in traffic at the buzzer.

For the half, Horton had 15 points and Millender 10 for the Roadrunners. Spears, who made three of the team’s 3-pointers, had nine. The Owls were led by Mashburn, who scored 10, including two of two from long distance.

Pre-game

UTSA guard Tai’Reon Joseph did not play for the second straight game. Reserve forward Skylar Wicks also apparently was not in the arena. A spokesman said neither Joseph nor Wicks were available, increasing to five the number of scholarship athletes who didn’t play.

Forwards Mo Njie (foot injury), guard Paul Lewis (foot) and Jaquan Scott (personal reasons) are the other three.

Lewis has been out for most of the season and Scott and Njie most of the last three weeks. On top of all that, Spears suffered an injury in practice on Friday and did not come out for the early phase of pre-game warm ups.

Raekwon Horton. UTSA beat Temple 88-79 in American Athletic Conference men's basketball on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Raekwon Horton set the tone for the Roadrunners, scoring 11 of his 20 points in the first five minutes of the game. – Photo by Joe .Alexander

Jonnivius Smith. UTSA beat Temple 88-79 in American Athletic Conference men's basketball on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Jonnivius Smith got a hand on an inbounds pass and forced a turnover in the last minute to spark a 10-2 UTSA surge. Smith also came up big with 10 points and 10 rebounds. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Men’s college basketball: Army holds on to defeat UTSA, 78-75

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Boosted by 27 points from Jalen Rucker, the Army Black Knights held on to win in the final minute Sunday afternoon, snapping the UTSA Roadrunners’ three-game winning streak, 78-75, in non-conference play at West Point, N.Y.

“Give them a ton of credit,” UTSA coach Austin Claunch said on the team’s radio broadcast. “Jalen Rucker’s obviously a heck of a player and played well … Just not our best effort today.”

At the end, the Roadrunners threw a scare into the Black Knights, who led by 15 early in the second half.

For UTSA, Primo Spears scored on a drive off an assist from Raekwon Horton with 36.6 seconds left. The bucket trimmed Army’s lead to four.

Trying to advance the ball, the Black Knights turned it over, but the Roadrunners also committed an error, throwing it away themselves.

From there, the game turned essentially into a tactical battle of free-throw shooters. Ryan Curry hit two for the Black Knights, and then Spears knocked down a pair for the Roadrunners with 14.3 seconds left.

After Curry hit another two, Army had a 78-72 lead with 13 seconds to go. But the game was hardly secure, and UTSA’s Tai’Reon Joseph made it interesting, knocking down a three from the corner.

Up 78-75 at that point, Army inbounded to Curry, its best free-throw shooter. But he missed the front end of a one and one with 4.9 seconds left, giving the Roadrunners another shot.

Marcus Millender advanced the ball full court on the dribble and positioned himself for an open look to tie, only to see his shot glance off the side of the rim.

Records

UTSA 6-6
Army 6-6

Coming up

x-UTSA at Tulane, Jan. 4, 5 p.m.
x-American Athletic Conference opener

Individuals

UTSA – Primo Spears had 22 points and nine rebounds. Tai’Reon Joseph added 16 off the bench. Raekwon Horton contributed 15 and seven boards.

Army – Jalen Rucker scored 16 of his game-high 27 points in the second half. He knocked down five 3-pointers. Ryan Curry had 15 points and AJ Allenspach 12.

Notable

UTSA was missing two big men, with starting center Mo Njie and forward Jaquan Scott not playing. Scott has been away from the team for a few weeks and has missed four games in a row.

Njie has played in 10 games, including UTSA’s two recent wins over the North Dakota Fighting Hawks and one over the non-Division I Southwestern Adventist Knights. The win over Southwestern Adventist came on Dec. 19, the Roadrunners’ last game before the break.

AAC men’s tournament: UTSA’s season comes to an end with a first-round loss to Temple

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Trailing by 14 points at halftime, the UTSA Roadrunners rallied to contest an American Athletic Conference first-round tournament game, battling with the Temple Owls into the final minute. But in the final seconds, they couldn’t get a three-pointer to fall, missing twice, and their season came to an end.

Christian Tucker. Temple beat UTSA 84-82 in the Roadrunners' final home game of the men's basketball season on Sunday, March 10, 2024 at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Christian Tucker produced a team-high 15 points and passed for four assists against the Temple Owls. – File photo by Joe Alexander

The Owls escaped with a 64-61 victory.

A poor first-half performance doomed the Roadrunners. They couldn’t get their offense rolling, hitting only 24 percent from the field and shooting only 1 for 13 from three-point distance. They were playing without injured leading scorer Jordan Ivy-Curry, so nothing came easily.

UTSA played hard in the second half, winning the 20-minute segment, 40-29. Christian Tucker led the charge with his floor leadership, ball-handling and passing. They had a couple of opportunities to take the lead down the stretch and were denied each time.

The final minute was hectic. Hysier Miller drained a three for Temple with 49.6 seconds remaining, boosting the Owls into a 64-58 lead. The Roadrunners answered almost immediately, with PJ Carter hitting a three of his own with 41.9 seconds left.

At the end, UTSA’s defense kept Temple from scoring, eventually forcing Miller into an over-and-back violation at halfcourt with 18 seconds left. With the ball on the side, the Roadrunners worked it first to Carter, who fired a three that was rebounded under the bucket by Carlton Linguard, Jr.

Linguard Jr. flipped it out to Tucker, who passed to Isaiah Wyatt at the top of the circle. With Miller contesting, Wyatt’s shot was off the mark, ending the Roadrunners’ season with an 11-21 record.

It was the third straight 20-loss season for the Roadrunners.

The Owls, who went 3-0 against the Roadrunners this season, will move on to play the sixth-seeded SMU Mustangs Thursday night. All games are being played at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth.

Steve Henson. Rice beat UTSA 80-76 in American Athletic Conference men's basketball on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA coach Steve Henson said after the game that he expects to speak with athletic director Lisa Campos soon. His contract expires at the end of the month. – File Photo by Joe Alexander

Afterward, UTSA coach Steve Henson addressed questions about his future. Since his contract expires at the end of the month, it’s been a topic of discussion in his last two post-game news conferences. He said Wednesday that he hasn’t talked to his athletic director about the contract.

Even though the stakes were high for the Roadrunners in the tournament, Henson said Ivy-Curry just couldn’t play.

“Juice injured his arm/shoulder against SMU, very end of the (SMU) game (on March 2),” he said. “It was extremely swollen. We had a week off after that one, I think. We had several day days off, anyway, and he tried to get a ton of treatment and tried to practice a little bit. We put him in the game on Sunday (at home against Temple) and he was pretty immobile.

“His arm’s extremely swollen up, and he just couldn’t contribute the way he wanted to and the pain was continuing to increase. It’s really hard to get the swelling out of there, so he just wasn’t able to play.”

Noting that the first-half performance just wasn’t good enough, Henson nevertheless said he was proud of his players.

“In the first half, just offensively we couldn’t get anything going,” he said. “We really struggled on the offensive end. We held ’em to 40 percent from the field. We won enough battles on that end. We just couldn’t get anything going. They were physical with us.

“And then at halftime we kind of flipped it. We started executing better, we started defending much better, and kind of turned the tables on ’em a little bit, made a nice run there.”

In each of the last two seasons, the Roadrunners have lost close games in their conference tournament openers. Last year in Frisco, it was a one-point loss to the Rice Owls at the Conference USA tournament. Japhet Medor hit a shot at the end that would have won the game, but it was waved off on review. This year, it was an equally gut-wrenching one-possession game at the end against the Temple Owls.

“Just extremely disappointed,” Henson said. “The nature of post-season play, it just ends. You’re out there and you’re fighting your tails off and guys are in the huddle playing with a lot of emotion, talking with a lot of emotion, rallying each other, pumping each other, and then that horn goes
off and it’s over. So it’s a very disappointing feeling.”

UTSA lost 10 players to the transfer portal last spring and replaced them with 10 more signees. As a result, coaches started work last summer with almost an entirely different group. The Roadrunners were good at times on the offensive end. But on the defensive end, they were erratic, though they did play well defensively in a four-game stretch at the end of the regular season.

But then on Sunday, they took to their home floor in the regular-season finale against Temple with a less-than-100 percent Ivy-Curry, and got beat 84-82. The loss was costly. If they had won, they would have had another day to rest before they started the tournament. Instead, they had to play on the first day, and now it’s over.

“Our whole thing this last three weeks has been believe, and we didn’t give up (today),” said Tucker, who finished with 15 points and four assists. “We knew that we (could) compete with this team. We didn’t do enough of it in the first half and we knew we had to bounce back in the second half, so we just came out fighting. I mean, we won the second half, but we dug ourselves into too deep of a hole.”

Freshman guard Zion Stanford paced Temple with a game-high 19 points on 7 of 13 shooting.

Halftime

Taking advantage of an injury to UTSA’s leading scorer, the Temple Owls built a double-digit lead in the first six minutes of the game, hiked the advantage to 16 with 3:20 remaining and then went into the dressing room with a 35-21 edge.

UTSA’s Jordan Ivy-Curry, a 17.1 points per game scorer, was on the bench in a T-shirt to start the game. Ruled out for the game with a shoulder injury, his status for the remainder of the tournament is unclear.

Regardless, the Roadrunners missed his presence. They opened the game hitting only 1 of their first 11 shots. Late in the half, they misfired on 10 in a row. For the first 20 minutes, the Roadrunners were 9 of 37 from the field for 24.3 percent.

The Owls, one of the worst teams in the AAC all season, started fast with a 13-3 lead.

But in the middle of the half, their own poor shooting allowed the Roadrunners to stay in the game. Finally, the Owls put some things together and scored seven straight points. With the burst, they opened a 33-17 lead with with 3:20 remaining.

Guard Zion Stanford led the Owls with three of five shooting for a team-high eight points in the half. Jordan Riley and Matteo Picarelli had six points apiece. Point guard Hysier Miller, a high-level scorer, played mostly in a set-up role.

He finished the half with three points and four rebounds, scoring only four points.

With Ivy-Curry sidelined, the Roadrunners needed PJ Carter to step up his game. But the Owls knew they needed him, as well, blanketing him with coverage even on the perimeter. Carter was 2 for 9 in the half for five points.

Pre-game

The UTSA Roadrunners men’s basketball team opened play in the American Athletic Conference tournament today without injured Jordan Ivy-Curry, the team’s leading scorer.

Fourteenth-seeded UTSA and No. 11 Temple just got underway at Dickie’s Arena in Fort Worth.

The Roadrunners started the tournament without both Ivy-Curry (shoulder) and Adante’ Holiman (lower leg).

Temple defeated UTSA twice this season. The Owls won 83-77 on Feb. 18 in Philadelphia and won again 84-82 in the regular season finale Sunday in San Antonio. Both finished with 5-13 records in conference play.

Records

UTSA 11-21
Temple 13-19

Notable

Eighth-year UTSA coach Steve Henson is facing questions about whether he might have coached his last game with Roadrunners. His contract expires at the end of this month, and he’s had three straight 20-loss seasons.

Henson said he hasn’t had any contract discussions with athletic director Lisa Campos.

“We’ve just been — had our heads down, grinding away, trying to get better. Loved the way our guys played at the end of the season. Lisa and I always talk at the conclusion of the season, so I’m sure we’ll do that again in this case.”

For Henson, it was the second time in his UTSA career that he entered a postseason game without an injured leading scorer. In 2018, guard Jhivvan Jackson sat out four games — two in the Conference USA tournament and two in the CollegeInsider.com tournament — with a knee injury.

Even with Jackson out of the lineup at the end, the Roadrunners finished off a 20-15 season, and Henson was named the C-USA Coach of the Year.

Temple played UTSA twice within the last week under a cloud of suspicion.

Gaming monitors at U.S. Integrity flagged the Owls’ 28-point home loss to UAB on March 7 for irregularities on the betting line in the hours before the game.

Owls coach Adam Fisher side-stepped a question about whether he has addressed the situation with the team, telling reporters in Fort Worth, “I know our university has put out a statement. My focus is on my players.

“I love my guys. We’ve been just trying to prepare for each game and just making sure we do exactly what we’ve done to prepare for each one.”

Men’s basketball: UTSA can clinch a first-round tournament bye by beating Temple

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The UTSA men’s basketball team has endured its share of tough breaks this season. Maybe the trend is shifting in the other direction.

Not only have the Roadrunners won three games in a row leading into today’s regular-season finale against the Temple Owls, but they also apparently have moved into position to control their own destiny and secure a first-round bye in the American Athletic Conference’s postseason tournament.

A few days ago, it appeared that the Roadrunners might have only an outside shot at avoiding being slotted into the bracket for a game Wednesday on Day 1 of the AAC tournament. Since then, a couple of opponents battling in close proximity to UTSA in the standings have stumbled.

On Friday night, the Wichita State Shockers lost at Tulane. On Saturday night, the Rice Owls lost at home to the University of North Texas Mean Green. Consequently, both the Shockers and the Owls have fallen into the bottom four in the AAC standings, while the Roadrunners have moved up to 10th.

Now, a Roadrunners victory Sunday at home against the Owls apparently will give them the 10th seed, an extra day to prepare and a tournament opener on Thursday. Instead of having to win five games in five days to reach the NCAA tournament, they’d get a more manageable four-in-four days task.

Senior Day

Sunday is Senior Day at the Convocation Center. The program is honoring Carlton Linguard Jr., Dre Fuller Jr. and Isaiah Wyatt, who have all played one season for the Roadrunners.

Linguard, a former standout at Stevens High School in San Antonio, returned home to the Alamo City after two seasons at Kansas State. After sitting out last season, the 7-footer appeared in 30 games with 21 starts. Linguard averaged 9.2 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks.

Fuller, who grew up in North Carolina, played three seasons at Central Florida before sitting out last year while caring for his mother, who was ill. She passed away last spring. Fuller has averaged 9.5 points and 4.6 rebounds

Wyatt, from Ohio originally, played in high school in Texas at North Crowley. UTSA is his fourth school after he attended McLennan College, Southwestern Christian (in Texas) and NCAA Division II Chadron State, Neb. Wyatt, known as a perimeter shooting threat, has averaged 7.0 points and 3.4 rebounds.

Records

Temple 11-19, 4-13
UTSA 11-19, 5-12

Coming up

The bracket for the American Athletic Conference tournament is expected to be finalized after the last two games of the regular season — Temple at UTSA and SMU at UAB — are played on Sunday afternoon. The five-day AAC tournament is scheduled to open Wednesday at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth.

AAC men’s basketball: UTSA set to tip off at Tulsa

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

One of the new members of the American Athletic Conference will play against one of the old guard tonight at the Reynolds Center in Tulsa, Okla. The UTSA Roadrunners are looking for a road victory against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane.

Both teams are struggling. UTSA (7-10, 1-3)) has lost two straight and six of its last eight. Tulsa (9-7, 0-4) has dropped four in a row, all in the AAC. At the same time, both squads will send out players capable of pushing the pace and scoring at a high rate.

UTSA has guard Jordan Ivy-Curry, who is averaging 16.9 points in seven games since he became eligible, in addition to Christian Tucker, Dre Fuller Jr., Carlton Linguard Jr. Tulsa will counter with the likes of PJ Haggerty, Cobe Williams and Isaiah Barnes.

It’s a critical time of the season for the Roadrunners, who have played well at times but have failed to generate much consistency. For instance, they led for much of the game at 15th-ranked Memphis on Jan. 10 and then lost 107-101 in overtime.

In their next outing, they returned home on Saturday and couldn’t get the offense cranked up in a 66-58 loss to the Charlotte 49ers, another indication that the Roadrunners tend to play sub-par basketball when the opposing team takes the posture of a slower pace.

To generate momentum, the Roadrunners need to play well tonight, because they will host a 2023 Final Four entry, the Florida Atlantic Owls, on Sunday. They’ll play host to another strong team from the AAC, the Tulane Green Wave, on Jan. 24.

Coached by Eric Konkol, a former UTSA nemesis when he worked at Louisiana Tech, the Bulldogs like to run with Haggerty, Williams and Barnes leading the team in scoring. Konkol, in his second season with the Golden Hurricane, struggled in his first year in Tulsa with a 5-25 record, including 1-17 in conference.

Konkol, a former Tulsa student assistant, had his team off to a 9-3 start this season before adversity struck.

The Golden Hurricane suffered a setback on Jan. 2 when it was announced that high-scoring guard Keaston Willis was lost for the season with a broken bone in his left foot. Willis, who played in San Antonio at the University of the Incarnate Word from 2019-21, is expected to seek a medical redshirt to return in 2024-25.

Tulsa has since lost to Memphis, East Carolina, Charlotte and Tulane. Three of the losses were by seven points or less. In its last game, played at home on Sunday, the Golden Hurricane played well but fell to Tulane 94-87 in overtime.

Haggerty, a 6-foot-3 freshman from Crosby, Texas, scored 25 points. He also had five assists and two steals.

Records

UTSA 7-10, 1-3
Tulsa 9-7, 0-4

Coming up

Florida Atlantic at UTSA, Sunday, 2 p.m.
Tulane at UTSA, Jan. 24, 7 p.m.
UTSA at South Florida, Jan. 27, 3 p.m.

UTSA men down Rice 89-82 in overtime for first AAC win

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Carlton Linguard Jr. scored 24 points and Dre Fuller Jr. added 23 on Saturday as the UTSA Roadrunners claimed their first American Athletic Conference victory in men’s basketball, defeating the Rice Owls 89-82 in overtime in Houston.

In a game played off the Rice campus at the University of St. Thomas, UTSA hit 14 three-pointers to secure the victory, with Fuller and Linguard knocking down nine between them.

Fuller stroked five for nine from beyond the arc and Linguard, a 7-foot center, hit four of eight.

Records

UTSA 7-8, 1-2
Rice 6-9, 0-2