By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
The UTSA Roadrunners hope to break a four-game losing streak when they host the Seattle Redhawks in men’s college basketball at the Convocation Center. Tipoff is at 2 p.m. Monday at the Convocation Center.
In the final non-conference game on the schedule before opening play in the American on Dec. 31 at Florida Atlantic, the Roadrunners will face a tough challenge.
Seattle, a member of the West Coast Conference, comes in with a 10-2 record, victories over two power conference teams and a top 100 standing in the NET rankings.
The visitors are listed at No. 94 on the NET. UTSA, at 4-7, with only two wins against NCAA Division I programs, carries a ranking of 308th among 365 teams in the nation.
Seattle, under fifth-year coach Chris Victor, hopes to use its fast start to create momentum toward play in the WCC.
In Victor’s first three seasons, the Redhawks finished 23-9, 20-12 and 23-14, before going 14-18 last year.
Last fall, they were picked eighth in the WCC, a league dominated recently by Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s, Calif.
So far this season, Seattle has evolved into a force among mid majors, winning on the road at Stanford of the Atlantic Coast Conference and on a neutral site against Washington of the Big Ten.
In the Redhawks’ last game, played on Dec. 19, they beat the Huskies, 70-66, in a grind-it-out matchup of Seattle-based programs.
Seattle is a high-scoring team, averaging 81.8 points behind Brayden Maldonado, Will Heimbrodt and Gonzaga transfer Jun Seok Yeo. They shoot 51 percent from the field as a team.
Records
Seattle 10-2
UTSA 4-7
Coming up
Seattle at UTSA, Monday, 2 p.m.
x-UTSA at Florida Atlantic, Dec. 31, noon
x-American Conference opener
Notable
UTSA hasn’t won since Nov. 25 in Jacksonville, Fla., against Georgia Southern.
Since then, Coach Austin Claunch’s Roadrunners have lost at home against South Alabama and on the road against nationally-ranked Alabama, Colorado and Southern Cal.
In their last game, played last Wednesday in Los Angeles, the Roadrunners played on mostly even terms with the Trojans for the first 17 minutes. After that, USC rolled, claiming a 97-70 victory.
UTSA is looking for its first home win this season against a Division I program.
The Roadrunners are 2-2 at the Convo, with the wins against the College of Biblical Studies from Houston and Oklahoma-based Southwestern Christian (Okla.)