The UTSA Roadrunners will face their first NCAA Division I opponent of the season tonight. Also playing on the road for the first time, UTSA (1-0) will play the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders (0-1).
Tipoff is at 7 p.m. at the Dugan Wellness Center on the A&M-Corpus Christi campus.
The Roadrunners, coming off a 74-47 victory over Division III Trinity University on Monday, hope to make a statement against a team that beat them by 19 points in San Antonio last year.
On Nov. 21, 2021, Steve Lutz-coached A&M-Corpus Christi registered a 77-58 victory over UTSA at the Convocation Center en route to a magical season, in which it won the Southland Conference postseason title and played in the NCAA tournament.
UTSA, on the other hand, suffered a down season and finished 10-22.
Led by guards Japhet Medor and John Buggs, the Roadrunners will present the Islanders with a different look.
Medor is a pass-first point guard and Buggs is capable of scoring in bunches from the perimeter.
UTSA didn’t play well offensively against Trinity, shooting only 40 percent from the field. But the defense was good for the second-straight outing, including a home exhibition against the Schreiner University Mountaineers.
Against Shreiner and Trinity, the Roadrunners have yielded only 107 points.
The Islanders will test the Roadrunners with largely the same personnel that posted a 23-12 record last season.
Guards Jalen Jackson, Simeon Fryer and Terrion Murdix will lead the attack, with 6-foot-5 rebounding force Isaac Mushila at one forward and De’Lazarus Keys at the other.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi opened its season on the road Monday, at Starkveville, Miss., and lost 63-44 to Mississippi State of the Southeastern Conference.
The Islanders led the game by 12 points in the first half and by five at intermission before the Cowboys rallied to put the game away.
Notable
A&M-Corpus Christi is a non-football playing program in the Southland Conference. The Islanders are coached by Lutz, who played at San Antonio’s East Central High School and at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin.
UTSA plays football and all other sports in Conference USA. It’s the last season for UTSA in the C-USA as it prepares to move next year into the American Athletic Conference. The Roadrunners are led by seventh-year head coach Steve Henson.
Coming up
Both teams play again on Monday night. A&M-Corpus Christi will host Trinity at the American Bank Center. UTSA will host the Division II St. Mary’s University Rattlers in a matchup of San Antonio-based schools at UTSA.