Junior guard-forward Brent Moss led the Roadrunners with 19 points and seven rebounds. – Photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The UTSA Roadrunners battled into the last minute Wednesday night but couldn’t make enough plays in crunch time, falling 83-73 to the UAB Blazers for their 14th straight loss.

A crowd of 1,024 at the UTSA Convocation Center watched as forward Daniel Rivera scored 17 points to lead the Blazers, who improved to 13-8 on the season and to 4-4 in the American Conference.

Oddly, UAB is 4-0 on the road in conference and 0-4 at home. UTSA, meanwhile, fell to 4-17 and 0-9 as Brent Moss produced 19 points and seven rebounds.

Jamir Simpson followed with 18 points, which included a tomahawk dunk in the second half, while Baboucarr Njie added 13 points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots.

Njie, a 6-6 sophomore from Ohio, has totaled 22 blocks in his last five games.

Guard Jamir Simpson scored 18 points on eight of 14 shooting from the field. – Photo by Joe Alexander

The Roadrunners’ losing streak is a school record, and now they are winless in December and January (0-13 combined) with a road game at South Florida set for next Wednesday, Feb. 4, to start the second half of conference.

If there is a silver lining, UTSA has now played competitively deep into the second half in consecutive games for the first time during the skid.

The Roadrunners fell 70-64 last Saturday afternoon. On Wednesday night, they did it again, staying within a few possessions of the Blazers for most of the second half and then taking the lead at 69-68 with 4:06 remaining.

UAB outscored UTSA 14-5 in the last four minutes, with Chance Westry scoring on a drive, followed by Dayjaun Anderson’s corner three to make it an eight-point game with 1:45 remaining.

In the final minute, Roadrunners freshman Kaidon Rayfield sank two free throws with 47.6 seconds left, lifting his team to within four.

In response, UAB scored the last six points on two free throws from Ahmad Robinson and then four straight from Salim London.

“To me, honestly, the frustrating thing is not losing this game tonight,” UTSA coach Austin Claunch said. “The frustrating part of being a head coach is, ‘What could I have done to get these guys playing like this a month ago?’ Because, (if we did) we wouldn’t be where we are (now).”

Guard Chance Westry, UAB’s leading scorer, hit six of eight from the field and matched his season average with 14 points against UTSA. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Claunch addressed the media, with Moss and Simpson seated at his side.

“These guys played their butts off tonight, led by two guys sitting next to me,” the coach said. “You lose a close game, that’s what basketball is all about. I told our guys. ‘We just got to keep putting ourselves in these situations.’ ”

Records

UAB 13-8, 4-4
UTSA 4-17, 0-9

Coming up

UTSA at South Florida, Feb. 4, 6 p.m.

Notable

The Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils have the nation’s longest losing streak at 19 games after falling Wednesday to Southern University of Louisiana, 80-69. UTSA is next at 14, with Air Force sitting on 13.

A case could be made that the Blazers won the game at the free throw line. UAB sank 21 of 32 at the line to 14 of 17 for UTSA. For the Blazers, London, Robinson and Jacob Meyer were all four for four at the stripe.

UTSA center Stanley Borden apparently has a new injury. He sat out his 18th straight game and was on the bench in a walking boot. The 7-foot transfer from Duke has also had a hand injury that has kept him out of most of the season.

First half

Thriving in the mid-range and taking the ball to the basket, the UAB Blazers shot 55.6 percent from the field Wednesday to take a 38-36 lead at halftime on the UTSA Roadrunners.

Forward Daniel Rivera led the Blazers with 11 points, including back-to-back dunks a minute apart near the end of the first 10 minutes.

The Roadrunners played well offensively themselves, getting 11 points apiece from Baboucarr Njie and Brent Moss to stay close.

Even though UTSA trailed, its morale was lifted in knowing that the team has now played well in the first half in two straight games.

It’s not a small accomplishment considering the Roadrunners have lost 13 straight and have been blown out by halftime in several of the losses.

In their last outing, the Roadrunners led the Temple Owls 33-31 at the break. In the end, the Owls rallied to win by six.

Baboucarr Njie produced 13 points, seven rebounds and three blocks. Njie has 22 blocks over his last five games. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Jordyn Jenkins connected on four of five shots from the field in the fourth quarter as the UTSA Roadrunners turned back the UAB Blazers on New Year’s night. An announced crowd of 917 attended at the Convocation Center. – Photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Just when it seemed that a visiting team might beat the UTSA women in the Convocation Center for the first time this season, Jordyn Jenkins scored nine of her 16 points in the fourth quarter, lifting the Roadrunners to a 67-56 victory over the UAB Blazers Wednesday night.

With the victory, the Roadrunners improved to 11-2, including 5-0 at home and 2-0 in the American Athletic Conference. Their overall record ties the 1985-86 team for the best 13-game start in school history.

Sidney Love. UTSA women’s basketball beat UAB 67-56 in an American Athletic Conference game on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, at the Convocation Center. – Photo by Joe Alexander

“I thought this was a really good win just from a standpoint of being kind of challenged,” UTSA coach Karen Aston said. “They took the lead (in the fourth quarter) and sort of tested our maturity. I thought we stepped up to the plate with that.”

Hit with two key losses to the transfer portal in the offseason, the Blazers gave an admirable effort against the AAC’s top-rated team.

On New Year’s night in front of an announced crowd of 917 fans, they rallied from an early 13-point deficit to take the lead, but then they were outplayed late and ultimately fell to 9-5 on the season and to 0-2 in conference.

“I didn’t think this would be an easy game,” Aston said. “I think UAB is really good. They shoot the ball really well. They’re a tough guard, especially since we haven’t played a team like them since we played Stanford.

“We have had three or four games in a row where we haven’t had to guard like we had to guard today. So I was concerned about that. I thought we did a pretty decent job. I thought we adjusted in the fourth quarter to how they were attacking us, which was really in the paint.”

After trailing for most of the game, the Blazers took a couple of one-point leads in the opening minutes of the fourth.

A Molly Moffitt 3-pointer lifted UAB into a 54-53 advantage with 6:40 remaining. From there, the Roadrunners outscored the Blazers 14-2 the rest of the way.

In the final run, Jenkins hit a contested 3-point shot from the wing and added a fast break layup off an alley-oop lob from Nina De Leon Negron. The 6-foot forward, in an athletic maneuver, caught the lob and spun it in off the glass before she hit the floor.

Freshman Damara Allen scored a season-high 11 points and claimed the team’s ‘Cash In’ golden chain award. -Photo by Joe Alexander

Sidney Love, whose 19 points led the Roadrunners, hit the last bucket of the game for the Roadrunners with 47 seconds left.

All told, the Roadrunners have built quite a bit of momentum moving into the teeth of the conference schedule. They’re No. 51 in the nation and are the highest-rated team in the AAC, according to the NCAA Evaluation Tool, or, the NET. And now they’ve just won their eighth game of the season by double digits.

Individuals

UAB — Center Rayne Tucker, a graduate transfer from Temple, led UAB with 16 points on eight of 11 shooting. Point guard Journey Armstead produced 13 points and four assists. Hitting 9.8 shots from the 3-point line for the season, UAB was limited to three of 12 shooting behind the arc. Maddie Walsh, a perimeter threat who leads the Blazers with 13.2 points, was held to seven.

UTSA – Love led the Roadrunners in scoring for the second time in four games and for the third time this season. She produced 19 points on eight of 19 shooting. Love, a junior from Steele, also had a team-high seven assists and five rebounds. Jenkins had 16 points on seven of 15 shooting. She was three of 10 afield before the fourth period outburst. Allen came off the bench to score 11 points on four of seven.

Records

UAB 9-5, 0-2
UTSA 11-2, 2-0

Coming up

UTSA at Tulsa, Saturday, 2 p.m.

First half

The Roadrunners tightened up their defense at the end of the second quarter, holding the Blazers to one field goal in the final 6:04, to take a 32-25 lead into the dressing room at intermission.

Love and Damara Allen led the Roadrunners offensively with eight points apiece. Allen, a freshman from Aurora, Colo., scored five in the second period. She hit a jumper with 5:16 remaining to spark a 9-4 run to the buzzer.

Jordyn Jenkins was honored before the game for scoring 1,000 points in her career at UTSA. – Photo by Joe Alexander

For the Blazers, freshman guard Journey Armstead and graduate transfer center Rayne Tucker did most of the damage.

Armstead scored 11 in the half, knifing through the defense to hit five of nine shots from the field. Tucker, a transfer from Temple, scored all of her eight points in a 12-3 run to open the second period.

UTSA came out firing to start the game, scoring the first nine points en route to a 15-2 lead. Love capped the streak with a 3-point bucket from the left wing with 3:34 remaining in the first quarter. The shot splashed just as the shot clock was winding down under five seconds.

Notable

With wins on the road at Charlotte and at home against UAB, UTSA improved to 2-0 in conference for the first time since the 2009-10 team won its first three games in the Southland Conference.

The Roadrunners also improved their homecourt winning streak to eight — three at the end of last season and now five more — which is tied for third longest in school history.

UTSA announced a crowd of 917 fans, including “a high percentage” of the people in the seats who were seeing a game in the Convocation Center for the first time, one official said. “I would say thanks for coming,” Aston said. “I hope they liked the product and will come back.

“I think that’s the going theme about women’s basketball, is (that) there’s a whole lot of people out there who have not been to a … game here at UTSA, or in general haven’t been to one.

“I’ve said this a million times. This is the hottest sport out there. Our team is playing well and I think this (is) a really good product. I think anybody who steps into the Convo is going to enjoy watching it.”

Aston said it was great to see most of the seats in both lower sections filled, even without the UTSA students on campus.

“I was really concerned,” she said. “Obviously, football is going on, and it’s New Year’s Day. I was pleased with the crowd (considering) school’s not in session. So those are people in the community that came out to see us today.”

The Blazers started the season 9-3 despite the offseason loss of third-team, all-conference guards Denim Deshields and Mia Moore, who transferred to power conference programs. The Roadrunners, for the most part, have been able to keep their key players over the past few years.

Quotable

Jordyn Jenkins, in her third year on campus, said it’s a great feeling to make so much progress as a team in that time. “We, literally in my first year here were like, ‘If we win 10 games, we’re going to go out and get dinner,” she said. “So now that we’re 11 wins in now, it’s just crazy. And it’s fun. Coach says she’s having fun coaching it. It’s really fun on the court.”

Moment of silence

Before player introductions, at the outset of the holiday evening on the Northwest side of San Antonio, UTSA held a moment of silence for the shocking tragedy in New Orleans that left at least 15 people dead.

The incident, described by authorities as an act of terror, happened at about 3 a.m. Wednesday in the French Quarter as a truck plowed through people celebrating the New Year. The driver was killed after a shootout with police.

The incident forced postponement of the Allstate Sugar Bowl game. Originally scheduled for Wednesday night, the College Football Playoff quarterfinal between Georgia and Notre Dame has been rescheduled for Thursday at the Caesars Superdome.

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The UTSA Roadrunners women seemingly have everything going their way right now — a 10-2 record, a win on the road in their American Athletic Conference opener. Also, a home game looms Wednesday night, with a chance to get out of the gates at 2-0 in the AAC race.

With all that being said, if the Roadrunners dig into the details of games played on opening weekend in the conference, they might take note of a curious development. Namely, the lack of any noticeable homecourt advantage anywhere.

Five of six visiting teams in The American came away with road victories on Sunday afternoon. Of course, one of the visiting teams was UTSA, which clobbered the Charlotte 49ers with a 17-3 run in the opening minutes and then went on to claim a 64-50 victory.

Also of note, the UAB Blazers emerged as one of the humbled homecourt losers. The Temple Owls rolled past the Blazers, 97-74, in Birmingham. So, what happens Wednesday when the 9-4 Blazers visit San Antonio and the Convocation Center, where the Roadrunners are 4-0 at home this season?

Will the homecourt matter all that much, on New Year’s night, with students still on holiday break? Or, will the Roadrunners need to plan on generating most of the energy on their own after the 6:30 p.m. tipoff, no matter how many fans are in the stands?

Asked about the results of Sunday’s games on a Monday morning zoom call, UTSA coach Karen Aston said they speak to the depth and the quality of talent in the conference.

“Honestly, I don’t think there’s a bad team (in the AAC),” Aston said. “The parity is across the board. I don’t think it’s necessarily going to matter whether you are at home or on the road.

“You’d like to think it does. You’d like to think your crowds give you some momentum, and you get to sleep in your own bed, and all of that.

“But, from a talent perspective, across the board, I don’t think there’s a lot of difference. You’re going to have to bring it every night.”

Trying to stay on an even keel throughout the season will be important, the coach said, noting, “You know, not getting too high or too low, is the good and the bad of it.”

The Blazers are not the same ball club that won 18 games and reached the first round of the WNIT in 2023-24. Their top two players from last season moved on to power conference programs via the transfer portal, Denim Deshields to Mississippi State and Mia Moore to Clemson.

But they do have a talented squad. Forward Jade Weathersby leads the AAC in rebounding. Guard Maddie Walsh and forward Sarah Bershers rank among the AAC’s top 3-point shooters. Point guard Journey Armstead is third in the conference in assists.

In addition, the Roadrunners only had one day to practice for a team that runs a different offense than what they faced Sunday in Charlotte against the 49ers. The Blazers like to shoot from deep, hitting an average of 9.8 from behind the arc.

“They hunt 3-point shots every trip down the floor,” Aston said. “They’re hunting paint touches and threes, which is considerably different than the style that Charlotte played, so we have to switch gears pretty quickly.”

Sunday’s results

South Florida wins at Rice, 74-64
North Texas wins at Wichita State, 62-56
Tulane wins at FAU, 91-71
UTSA wins at Charlotte, 64-50
Temple wins at UAB, 97-74
Tulsa wins at home, beating East Carolina, 93-84

Wednesday’s games

Rice at Tulane, 2 p.m.
East Carolina at Temple, 3 p.m.
Wichita State at Memphis, 3 p.m.
Tulsa at North Texas, 4 p.m.
Charlotte at South Florida, 6 p.m.
UAB at UTSA, 6:30 p.m.

Notable

The Roadrunners are looking for their first 2-0 start in league play since the 2009-10 team won its first three in the Southland Conference. UTSA has won its first four games at home this season and seven in a row overall dating back to last season.

The Roadrunners have the second-best record in school history after 12 games. In 1985-86, the sixth year of the program, they started 11-1 before losing their next two. They finished the season 18-9.

UTSA leads the conference in both scoring defense (54.8) and field goal percentage allowed (36.0). Over the team’s last five games, the Roadrunners have been particularly stingy, holding opponents to an average of 52.6 points on 31.5 percent from the field.