By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Even with the UTSA men’s basketball team eliminated from a chance to secure a berth in the American Conference tournament, Coach Austin Claunch has a goal with three games left to play in a dismal season.

“We intend to win all three,” he said.

Claunch’s quest starts Wednesday night at the Convocation Center when the Roadrunners (5-22, 1-14) host Jordan Riley and the East Carolina Pirates (9-18, 4-10).

The Pirates beat the Roadrunners 88-72 two weeks ago in Greenville, N.C. It was the 17th straight loss for UTSA in a program-record skid.

Since then, UTSA broke the streak with an 88-79 victory at Charlotte and then dropped two games, losing 60-52 at home to the Florida Atlantic University Owls and then getting blown out 100-74 at Tulsa.

Riley is the leading scorer in the American and No. 2 in the nation, averaging 23.6 points per game.

The Roadrunners did a respectable job on Riley in Greenville, holding him to 19 points on five of 14 shooting. But the Pirates compensated by shooting 46 percent as a team and had three other players in double figures.

Guard Isaiah Mbeng hit four 3-pointers and scored 18.

The Pirates won the game in the first half when they held the Roadrunners to 28 percent shooting and bolted to a 46-31 lead.

According to the conference’s player availability report, both Austin Nunez and Mo Njie are out for Wednesday night’s game, bringing to six the number of players on the roster inactive for the third-to-last game in the regular season.

UTSA will have eight players available to play against East Carolina.

Records

UTSA 5-22, 1-14
East Carolina 9-18, 4-10

Coming up

Wichita State at UTSA, Sunday, 7 p.m.