UTSA claims first road win of the season, 95-85, at North Dakota

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Guard Tai’Reon Joseph poured in 28 points, and the UTSA Roadrunners claimed their first road victory of the season by holding off the North Dakota Fighting Hawks 95-85 Sunday afternoon.

After the Roadrunners defeated the Hawks 80-76 on Friday night in San Antonio, the second game between the teams in three days started to look like a blowout in the second half, with UTSA building a 17-point lead in Grand Forks, N.D.

In the end, though, the Hawks battled from behind and pulled within three with 1:28 remaining.

Down the stretch, UTSA guard Marcus Millender scored on a driving layup off a set play. After that, Damari Monsanto, Raekwon Horton and Joseph, a transfer from Southern University playing in only his third game at UTSA, hit two free throws apiece to secure the 2-0 sweep of the Hawks.

The story of the day centered on Joseph, who had to sit out the first seven games of the season to regain his eligibility. Playing in his first two, he showed off elite defensive skills but scored only six points at Arkansas and six more Friday at home against North Dakota.

But because of an errant jump shot, he hit only four of 14 from the field in the two games combined. On Sunday, coming off the bench for UTSA at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center in Grand Forks, Joseph started to round into the form that made him the leading scorer last year in the Southwestern Athletic Conference.

He hit eight of 11 from the field and six of eight from the 3-point arc. Joseph also hit six of seven at the line as UTSA, the third-best free-throw shooting team in the nation, knocked down 22 of 24 for 91.7 percent.

Afterward, Joseph told the UTSA radio broadcast that vocal support from his coaches and teammates helped him stay confident with his offensive game.

“I just got back (in the lineup), and they told me, ‘Shot (is) going (to) fall. Keep shooting,’ ” Joseph said. “They kept giving me the ball, and I just kept taking shots, and they started falling.”

In an interview with broadcaster Andy Everett, Joseph said coaches told him during the game to drive the ball if the defense kept pressuring him at the 3-point line. He did just that with a drive and a jam that lifted the Roadrunners into an 80-66 lead with 4:36 left.

“Coach telling me, ‘Hey, (if) they flying out there … you can go get you a dunk. Next play, I got the dunk,” he said.

The Roadrunners’ offense was at its best, as they hit 52 percent from the field for the game and 63 percent at the 3-point arc. From the arc, they made 15 of its shots on 24 attempts. Moving the ball well, the Roadrunners had 29 field goals on 16 assists.

“It’s just sharing the ball,” Joseph said. “Like coach said, when you share the ball, we all going to have fun and we all going to win.”

Guard Primo Spears scored 16 points and Damari Monsanto 15 for the Roadrunners. Millender had 11 points and seven assists, while Horton contributed 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Guard Treysen Eaglestaff led North Dakota with 24 points, including 13 in the second half. Dariyus Woodson added 23. Combined, the two of them made nine three pointers. For the Fighting Hawks, who play in the Summit League, it was their third game in five days in three different cities.

On their sojourn, they traveled to Orem, Utah, last Tuesday and lost to Utah Valley on Wednesday night. Afterward, they flew to San Antonio on Thursday and lost to UTSA Friday night in the makeup of a game that had been re-scheduled from a Nov. 9 postponement.

First half

The Roadrunners shot 50 percent from the field and made seven 3-pointers in the first half en route to a 39-34 lead against the North Dakota Fighting Hawks. Horton and Primo Spears hit from beyond the arc in the final 61 seconds in a late 6-1 run for UTSA.

Records

UTSA 5-5
North Dakota 4-8

Coming up

Southwestern Adventist at UTSA, Thursday, noon

Notable

The Roadrunners were looking a little lost after starting the season with a 1-3 record, including three straight losses by double figures.

Since then, they’ve won four of their last six, with the only two losses coming on the road at Saint Mary’s and Arkansas, both of them NCAA tournament contenders. After they play host to Southwestern Adventist — a non-Division I private school from Keene, in the Fort Worth area — they’ll have a break before they travel to meet Army on Dec. 29.

Conference play starts on Jan. 4 at Tulane.

UTSA forward David Hermes played for the first time since a Nov. 25 game against Troy. He scored four points and had a blocked shot in four minutes. Born in Syria, Hermes is a 6-10 forward from Stockholm, Sweden. He attended high school in Florida and played in junior college at Indian Hills Community College.

Forward Jaquan Scott missed his second game in a row. After Friday’s game in San Antonio, UTSA coach Austin Claunch said Scott “isn’t with us right now.” He said that there’s no timetable for his return.

UTSA will host a basketball doubleheader on Thursday at the Convocation Center. After the men host Southwest Adventist, the women will take on the UT Arlington Mavericks at 4 p.m.

Spears-led UTSA claims ‘the first round’ against North Dakota

Primo Spears. UTSA beat North Dakota 80-76 in non-conference men's basketball on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Connecticut native Primo Spears punctuated UTSA’s 80-76 victory over North Dakota Friday night by knocking down three straight field goals in the final two minutes. He scored a game-high 28 points. – Photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Guard Primo Spears scored 10 of his 28 points in the final two minutes and 11 seconds as the UTSA Roadrunners held off the North Dakota Fighting Hawks 80-76 Friday night at the Convocation Center. The teams will play again on Sunday at 2 p.m. in Grand Forks, N.D.

“The first round is important,” Spears said of the two-game series. “Now we got to go up there and face a little adversity with the traveling and try to get us another one.”

Spears entered Friday’s contest as the nation’s fourth leading scorer, and with the game on the line, he showed how he has elevated himself into that position. The native of Hartford, Conn., made two acrobatic moves down the stretch and converted each into three-point plays.

Damari Monsanto. UTSA beat North Dakota 80-76 in non-conference men's basketball on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Damari Monsanto scored 12 points as he made four shots from 3-point distance. He also passed for four assists. – Photo by Joe Alexander

On one of them, he cut across the lane and laid out for a driving, right-handed scoop shot. After the foul, he got up off the floor and hit the free throw. On another, he split a pair of defenders for a layup, drew contact, and ended up at the line for another freebie.

Spears was hardly the only show in an entertaining basketball game.

Forward Dariyus Woodson led five North Dakota players in double figures with 21 points, including a 3-point shot that he banked in with 20 seconds left. His shot trimmed UTSA’s lead to four and gave North Dakota some hope for a miracle finish, but Spears knocked down two free throws with 16 seconds left to all but seal it.

“Wins are always good,” UTSA coach Austin Claunch said. “I think the most encouraging thing about this is, offensively, we score 80 and we left some meat on that bone. We missed some open threes, some shots we normally make.”

Dominating on the boards throughout, the Hawks had their moments in the game.

In the first half, they forged a 14-3 run to build a 31-23 lead with more than seven minutes left. In the second half, even when they fell behind by 13 with 10 minutes remaining, they responded with runs that pulled them to within five three times down the stretch.

Each time, the Roadrunners made enough plays to pull it out. Afterward, Claunch praised his players’ “collective fight” in winning their second straight at home and their third in their last five overall.

“This was encouraging, to get up by 13 with 10 minutes left against a quality team,” Claunch said. “Now we just got to continue to grow and learn how to finish, which is part of becoming a good program and a good team.”

Records

North Dakota 4-7
UTSA 4-5

Coming up

UTSA at North Dakota, Sunday, 2 p.m.

Individual leaders

North Dakota — Small forward Dariyus Woodson hit six of 14 from the field and five of 12 from three to score 21 points. Guard Treysen Eaglestaff scored 14, more than four below his team-leading average of 18.5, and Brian Mathews added 13. Forwards Deng Mayar and Amar Kuljuhovic each scored 10 and dominated the boards, with both pulling down 11 rebounds. The two combined for 13 offensive rebounds, with Kuljuhovic grabbing nine.

Marcus Millender. UTSA beat North Dakota 80-76 in non-conference men's basketball on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Marcus Millender produced 10 points, four rebounds and three steals .as UTSA won its second straight game at home. – Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA — Spears knocked down 11 of 17 shots from the field and was three for three in the last 2 minutes and 11 seconds. He scored 28 points, his seventh game with 20 or more this season. Damari Monsanto scored 12, including four 3-point baskets. Marcus Millender was good across the board. Millender had 10 points and four rebounds, and he also had four assists and three steals. Forward Jonnivius Smith contributed eight points, 11 rebounds and two blocks.

Notable

The Roadrunners were scheduled to take a charter flight to Grand Forks, N.D., late Friday night, the team’s first charter flight of the season Over the years, UTSA men’s basketball traditionally has traveled on commercial airlines. But it is expected that UTSA will charter on a limited basis through this season. The team is expected to return home from North Dakota on a commercial flight.

UTSA forward Jaquan Scott, one of the Roadrunners’ best athletes, did not play and apparently wasn’t in the arena. Asked about Scott’s status on the team, Claunch said: “He’s not with us right now.” He described it as “a personal matter that we’re dealing with internally.” There is no timetable for Scott’s return, the coach said.

Spears is shooting the basketball better at UTSA than in any of his three previous stops in college basketball. As player at Duquesne, Georgetown and Florida State in the past three years, respectively, he never posted a field goal percentage better than 40.8 percent. He is shooting 45.2 percent at UTSA. On his three-pointers, he was never better than 30 percent at any of his previous stops. Spears is hitting 35.3 percent from three at UTSA.

Austin Claunch. UTSA beat North Dakota 80-76 in non-conference men's basketball on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Austin Claunch’s UTSA Roadrunners outscored the North Dakota Fighting Hawks 21-5 in fast break points. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Quotable

Claunch said Spears “had a great week” of practice after the team returned home from Arkansas, where they lost by 15 last Saturday. “I thought he showed incredible leadership and spirit tonight,” the coach said. “You know, when you do that, good things tend to happen.” Claunch said he didn’t really notice that Spears scored 28. “I thought he was an incredible floor general, getting everybody involved,” the coach said. “He did what great players do at the end of the game. They make shots.”

First half

The UTSA Roadrunners scored 16 points off nine North Dakota turnovers, seizing a 43-38 lead at intermission. Primo Spears and Marcus Millender led the defensive effort with three steals apiece.

They also paced the offensive attack with Spears scoring 12 points and Millender 10. Combined, the two shot nine of 17 from the field between them. Forward Jonnivius Smith came off the bench to supply a spark, producing six points and five rebounds in 14 minutes.

Treysen Eaglestaff highlighted the first-half performance by the Fighting Hawks with nine points on three of five shooting, including two of four from three.

Jonnivius Smith. UTSA beat North Dakota 80-76 in non-conference men's basketball on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Jonnivius Smith rises for a one-handed dunk against North Dakota. Smith finished with eight points, 11 rebounds and two blocks. – Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA men prepare for the first of two tests against North Dakota

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Over the next 72 hours, a college basketball oddity becomes a reality for the North Dakota Fighting Hawks and the UTSA Roadrunners.

The Fighting Hawks and Roadrunners men will play Friday night in San Antonio at the Convocation Center and then will turn around and play again Sunday afternoon in Grand Forks, N.D.

For UTSA coach Austin Claunch, it’ll be an experience that brings back memories of his first year in college coaching.

A dozen years ago, he worked on Paul Hewitt’s staff at George Mason University when the Patriots made the finals of the College Basketball Invitational. For the title, they faced off against the Santa Clara Gauchos in a best-of-three series.

The Gauchos won, two games to one, in a series spread out between the West and East coasts. Santa Clara won at home in California in Game 1, before George Mason rebounded two days later to take Game 2 in Fairfax, Va. Two days after that, playing in Fairfax again, the Gauchos beat the Patriots 80-77 for the championship.

“We went to Game 3 and I remember feeling, like, ‘Man, I don’t know how NBA teams do best of seven,’ ” Claunch said earlier this week. “It’s just insane. You feel like you watched the same personnel clips. You’re trying to find new things to talk to your team about. Back to back (games this weekend) won’t feel quite like that, but it’ll be a quick turnaround.”

Originally, North Dakota and UTSA were scheduled to play the first game of a home-and-home on Nov. 9 in San Antonio. But the game was called off, postponed in the wake of weather that prevented the Fighting Hawks from traveling through a flight connection in Denver.

Last week, the teams solidified the make-up for Friday night, the 13th, in San Antonio, which would be followed two days later by the game at Grand Forks. A game that had been on the books all along. So both teams, today, are preparing to see a lot of one another this weekend.

“When you’re playing a good team, you got to be locked in,” Claunch said Monday. “It’s going to be 80 minutes of really competitive basketball. This is a really important week of preparation, and right now we’re just worried about the first (game).

“We’re not worried about Sunday. We got to take care of home court this week and hopefully go 1-0 this week as we move into Sunday and hopefully start the (new) week off the right way.”

Records

North Dakota 4-6
UTSA 3-5

Coming up

UTSA at North Dakota, 2 p.m.

Notable

Two UTSA players to watch this weekend are guard Tai’Reon Joseph and forward Jaquan Scott. Two of the better athletes in the program, Joseph and Scott could spark the Roadrunners if they can find consistency. Joseph sat out the team’s first seven games with an eligibility issue and Scott missed three recently with a leg injury.

Joseph has shown in practices that he is one of the most explosive athletes on the team. A 6-foot-3 guard, the transfer from Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., is a player capable of leading the team in scoring on certain nights.

In his first game of the season last Saturday at Arkansas, he sparked the team in the first half with a steal and a breakaway dunk. He finished with four points, two rebounds and three steals in 21 minutes. Joseph struggled with his shot, hitting only two of six from the field and zero for two on 3-pointers.

Scott, a 6-foot-7 transfer from Mississippi State, exploded on Dec. 3 at Saint Mary’s for 14 rebounds off the bench. He had eight offensive boards against one of the best rebounding teams in the nation. Against Arkansas on Dec. 7, his playing time was limited to 16 minutes because of foul trouble, and he finished with only four rebounds.

Eye on North Dakota

North Dakota basketball dates back to the 1904-05 season. For most of their history they have played and made their name in NCAA Division II, notably in the 1960s under head coach Bill Fitch, who had an All-American center named Phil Jackson.

The program started its transition to Division I in 2008 and became a full-time member in 2012-13. Another transition came in the change of nicknames. The school elected to drop the Fighting Sioux nickname in 2011 and went without one until 2015, when they became the Fighting Hawks.

Another milestone was reached in 2017 when North Dakota reached the NCAA Division I tournament for the first time. Playing as a No. 15 seed, they played Arizona in Salt Lake City and lost 100-82. Currently the Hawks are in their seventh season in the Summit League and their sixth under Head Coach Paul Sather.

Treysen Eaglestaff (18.3 ppg), Mier Panoam (13.6, 5.4 rpg) and Amar Kuljuhovic (11.3, 6.8) rank as the Hawks’ top players. They lost 80-57 on Wednesday night at Utah Valley to open a stretch of three games in five days in three different cities.

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UTSA men won’t take credit for moral victories after losses to Saint Mary’s, Arkansas

Update: Groundbreaking for UTSA’s 53,000-square foot basketball and volleyball practice facility is scheduled for Dec. 18, according to a news release from the athletic department. The $35 million structure will be located next to the Roadrunner Athletics Center of Excellence on Barshop Blvd. It will house the daily operations of the UTSA men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball programs.

Austin Claunch. UTSA men's basketball lost to Little Rock 81-64 on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Austin Claunch’s UTSA Roadrunners moved up about 60 places in the NCAA NET rankings over the past week. The Roadrunners were ranked at No. 234 on Monday. – File photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Last Tuesday night, UTSA men’s basketball coach Austin Claunch lamented lost chances to win on the home court of the Saint Mary’s Gaels, the defending champions in the West Coast Conference.

The Gaels won the ball game, 82-74 in overtime, but the Roadrunners made a statement, rallying from a 23-point deficit to tie the score after 40 minutes of regulation play.

“This is one we can watch and say, ‘We got something here, it’s coming,’ ” Claunch told the team’s radio broadcast. “You know, whether it’s next game or down the line or three months, UTSA is coming.”

By Saturday afternoon, the Roadrunners were doing their thing again, surging into a 32-27 intermission lead in the home arena of the Arkansas Razorbacks.

As the first half against John Calipari’s Razorbacks showed, UTSA has made substantial progress in some areas since it suffered three straight double-digit losses in November.

Then again, the second half at Arkansas was a different ball game, altogether. It was humbling. Getting walloped 48-28 after intermission in an eventual 75-60 loss exposed some of UTSA’s deficiencies that need to be addressed moving forward.

By Monday morning, Claunch made it clear that two hard-fought battles in losses against quality opponents can’t be considered a step forward for the program at this juncture of the season.

“Certainly step forward is hard to say when you go 0-2,” the coach said. “But at the same time, did we find things that we think are going to help us moving into conference? Yeah, absolutely. We’ve got to learn how to finish close games. And credit (to) Arkansas and Saint Mary’s. They’re obviously two good teams that have been there and have won a lot of games. Great programs. Two Hall of Fame coaches.

“For us to put ourselves in those situations, that’s encouraging. To be up at half against Arkansas. To take Saint Mary’s to overtime at a place they don’t lose very often, that’s really encouraging. Now we got to figure out how to win those type of games in overtime and to withstand the second-half comeback from a really good team, because we’ll be in that position again this season.”

In the wake of the losses at Saint Mary’s and Arkansas, UTSA has moved up about 60 places in the NET computer rankings. The Roadrunners have risen to No. 234 as of Monday, up from a ranking in the 290s early last week. The NET ranks 364 teams in NCAA Division I men’s college basketball on a daily basis.

UTSA’s next opponent, the North Dakota Fighting Hawks, are 294th.

Coming up

North Dakota at UTSA, Friday, 7 p.m.
UTSA at North Dakota, Sunday, 2 p.m.

Records

North Dakota 4-5
UTSA 3-5

Notable

Groundbreaking for UTSA’s basketball and volleyball practice facility is expected this month.

Claunch joked that the two-games-in-three-days situation against North Dakota is “kind of like an NBA back-to-back.” North Dakota was originally scheduled to play in San Antonio on Nov. 9. That game had to be postponed because of weather-related travel issues that the visitors faced on one of their connecting flights.

Last week, the game was re-set officially for Dec. 13. Which means, the Roadrunners will play on their home floor Friday night, and travel most of the day Saturday to Grand Forks, N.D., where they’ll meet the Hawks again on Sunday afternoon.

The new schedule will be even more challenging for the Hawks, who will play three games in five days in three different cities this week.

They will start their sojourn Wednesday night with a road game at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Subsequently they’ll travel to San Antonio and play UTSA Friday night. Finally, the Hawks will return home to Grand Forks for the Sunday matinee.

North Dakota at UTSA men’s basketball has been canceled

A men’s basketball game scheduled for Saturday night at UTSA scheduled has been canceled because of weather and travel-related concerns for the North Dakota Fighting Hawks.

Whether the game can be rescheduled to later in the season is yet to be determined, according to a news release from UTSA.

The UT Rio Grande Valley at UTSA women will play Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Convocation Center, as scheduled, a spokesman said.

The spokesman said the issue for the men’s game centered on North Dakota having flights canceled because of weather in the Dallas-Forth Worth area. Edinburg-based UTRGV shouldn’t have any travel concerns, the spokesman said.