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UTSA women run away from Prairie View A&M, 86-40

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UTSA junior forward Idara Udo produced 12 points and 10 rebounds as the Roadrunners snapped a two-game losing streak with a blowout victory. – Photo by Vashaun Newman, UTSA athletics

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Coach Karen Aston is always wary of the first game after final exams, and so she was relieved to see her players come out and compete with energy and efficiency Saturday afternoon.

In pounding the Prairie View A&M Lady Panthers, 86-40, Aston was also pleased to see the UTSA Roadrunners put five losses — including four against Power 4 competition — behind them.

“I think it was good to get back to the Convocation Center,” she said, “and … play again after we get through a tough stretch and, in particular, (after we get) through finals.

“You never know how you’re team’s going to react coming out of finals.”

Facing a team coached by San Antonio native Tai Dillard, who once was one of the city’s greatest female basketball players, Aston also knew that Prairie View would be ready to play.

And they were, if only for a quarter. In the last three periods, the Roadrunners rolled — 21-9 in the second, 20-6 in the third and 26-9 in the fourth.

“I think there was part of the team that looked like it had been through a long week mentally,” Aston said, “but I thought that as the game went along, we connected a little bit better.

“The thing I’m most proud about today is our assist-turnover ratio (24-12). I mean, we’ve had a struggle with that, and I thought we were pretty intentional today with making extra passes, sharing the ball.

“It’s fun to watch when you play like that.”

The Roadrunners took complete control in the second and third periods, turning the fourth into garbage time. Leading by 31 going into the fourth, they kept pouring it on and led by 40 with three minutes to play.

All day, graduate senior guard Ereauna Hardaway was the facilitator, passing for seven assists against three turnovers. It was a point guard’s dream, as everyone seemed to be open.

“Just seeing my teammates, getting in the windows, what we’ve been working on in practice,” she said. “Just gettin’ downhill and making plays with ’em.”

In all, five UTSA players reached double figures in scoring, with sophomore Mia Hammonds leading with 17. Damara Allen had 14, Idara Udo 12, Jayda Holiman 11 and Hardaway 10.

Udo, who had fouled out in three of her last six games, pulled down 10 rebounds to complete her third double double of the season and her first since Nov. 19.

She said her bounce-back game centered on making adjustments.

“I talked a lot with coach this week, coach Cam (Miles),” she said, “just watching the film and seeing what I can do in applying those adjustments to changes in the game, and then, being more disciplined on defense.”

UTSA may have needed a game like this one.

A week ago, the Roadrunners fell 66-39 to UNLV and had their 17-game homecourt winning streak snapped. Then they followed with a road test at 14th-ranked Baylor that also didn’t go their way.

While they played well for a half against the Lady Bears, they dropped a 73-55 decision, giving them as many losses (five) as they had all last season.

UTSA (4-5) plays again on Monday at 11 a.m. against Division II Texas A&M-Kingsville. Prairie View (2-7) lost its third straight under Dillard, who was an all state player at Sam Houston High School.

Dillard also played for the Texas Longhorns and in the WNBA for the San Antonio Silver Stars.

After her playing career, she worked in high schools in the city for a few years before UTSA coaches approached her about joining the Roadrunners’ staff.

She worked at UTSA from 2007-12, assisting Head Coach Rae Rippetoe-Blair with NCAA tournament teams in 2008 and 2009.

Before the game, Dillard engaged in a 10-minute conversation on the court with current UTSA assistant Amber Gregg, one of her players on UTSA women’s basketball’s only two NCAA entries.

“Amber and her crew, they made a lot of memories and did a lot while they were here,” Dillard told The JB Replay before the game. “I was just blessed to be in their lives while they were at UTSA.”

First half

Hammonds connected on three of four from the field in the second quarter as the UTSA Roadrunners opened a 40-25 halftime lead.

Responding after an inconsistent first period, UTSA shot nine of 16 and outscored Prairie View 20-9 in the second.

Hammonds scored the last six points of the half on a 15-footer, a baseline drive and a layup.

Records

Prairie View A&M 2-7
UTSA 4-5

Coming up

Texas A&M-Kingsville at UTSA, Monday, 11 a.m.

Notable

Crystal Schultz led the Lady Panthers with 20 points on eight of 19 shooting from the field. The rest of the team didn’t fare so well, making only seven of 43. Altogether, the Roadrunners held the Panthers to 24.2 percent.

UTSA, on the other hand, shot 44 percent from the field and 39 percent from three. The Roadrunners made nine of 22 shots from behind the arc.

Free throw shooting was a problem for UTSA early, as the Roadrunners made only six of 14 in the half. UTSA made nine of nine after intermission and finished 15 of 23 at the line.

UTSA’s Aston set to coach against ‘a San Antonio legend’

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Prairie View A&M head coach Tai Dillard (left) visits with UTSA assistant Amber Gregg Saturday at the Convocation Center. Dillard worked on the coaching staff and Gregg played for UTSA teams that reached the NCAA tournament in 2008 and 2009. – Photo by Jerry Briggs

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Tai Dillard returns home to San Antonio on Saturday, with the first-year head coach of the Prairie View A&M Lady Panthers leading her team into the Convocation Center to take on the UTSA Roadrunners.

Tipoff is at 1 p.m.

Dillard is a San Antonio native who played for the powerhouse Sam Houston High School teams in the late 1990s and for the San Antonio Silver Stars of the WNBA from 2003-05.

After high school, she moved on to the University of Texas, where she learned the game under head coach Jody Conradt and a UT assistant by the name of Karen Aston.

Aston, now the fifth-year head coach of the Roadrunners, recruited Dillard and another former Sam Houston player, Annissa (Hastings) Jackson, to Texas.

Jackson is the head coach at San Antonio’s Wagner High School.

Dillard, meanwhile, is in her first season as a head coach in college basketball after working for almost two decades as an assistant, including 2007-12 at UTSA under Rae Rippetoe-Blair.

“Just two of the most competitive players and two of the best people that I’ve ever coached in my lifetime,” Aston said. “I mean, (Tai)’s a treasure. She was just one of those players who put on her hard hat every day, as I’m sure she’s done as a coach.

“She was an absolute pleasure to coach. She’s got a wonderful family. She’s a San Antonio legend, in my opinion. I use her as a story a lot when I have young players who struggle, because, as a freshman she didn’t get to play very much.

“And then, right at the end of her freshman year, right before the conference tournament, I remember this so vividly, it was like the light came on, and she never really looked back once that happened.”

Dillard played in high school at Sam Houston under coach Charlotte Jones, earning all-state honors as a junior and senior, as the team compiled a record of 60-14.

Sam Houston reached the state semifinals in both years, falling to Bay City in 1998 and to Dallas Lincoln in 1999.

Records

Prairie View A&M 2-6
UTSA 3-5

Coming up

Prairie View A&M at UTSA, Saturday, 1 p.m.

Notable

After opening the season by playing a schedule that included four Power Four conference teams, plus the UNLV Lady Rebels, the Roadrunners emerged with five losses.

But Coach Karen Aston hopes the experience gave the players a perspective on what it will take to compete in the upcoming American Conference race.

“The schedule obviously didn’t do this young team any favors, if you look at it just from a win-loss perspective,” Aston said.

“But,” she added, “if you look at it from a perspective that they didn’t need to have a false sense of who they were going into conference play — they needed to understand what it takes to compete against a good basketball team.

“They needed to understand what their weaknesses were. For lack of better words, they needed to become a team. This is a new group that wasn’t — and still isn’t — where they need to be from a team perspective.”

She said the team still needs to grow because of so many new players in the system and because of others who have taken on expanded roles.

“We’re growing,” she said, “but are we going to be exactly where we need to be when we open up against Tulane (on Dec. 30). Probably not. But I think we’re getting closer every day, if they just … continue to work on the things it’s going to take to win close games.”