By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
The stakes keep rising for the UTSA women as they ride a 10-game winning streak into an American Athletic Conference road game against the South Florida Bulls.
Forward Jordyn Jenkins averages 18.9 points and 7.3 rebounds for the Roadrunners, who beat the Bulls twice last season, including once in the quarterfinals of the AAC tournament. – File photo by Joe Alexander
The first-place Roadrunners (17-2, 8-0) lead the Bulls (13-8, 6-2) by two games in the standings with 10 to play in the regular season. Last fall, the Bulls were installed as the preseason favorites to win the AAC, and they battled through a rugged non-conference schedule, including seven games against Power 4 competition.
Playing at home on Dec. 21, they knocked off the top-10 Duke Blue Devils, which has allowed them to leap over the Roadrunners in the NCAA Evaluation Tool ratings. Even with six more losses, South Florida is the top AAC team in the NET at No. 67, five spots ahead of No. 72 UTSA, leading into tonight’s game in Tampa.
With the NET used to calculate teams’ strengths as they’re considered for the NCAA tournament, the ratings are not too much on anyone’s radar right now. But it surely would be a good thing for the Roadrunners to beat the Bulls for ratings points that could come in handy going into March.
If the Roadrunners are feeling any “big game” vibes, they didn’t really show it in a week of preparation since Jan. 22, their last game, when they beat Tulsa at home.
“I was curious if they would feel that way,” UTSA coach Karen Aston said. “To be honest, they didn’t look a whole lot different, which is, I think, a good sign.”
Consistent preparation has been a hallmark for a Roadrunners team off to its best start after 19 games in school history.
“Their habits are who they are,” Aston said. “I’m not sure that they’re approaching this game much differently than they have any of the other ones that we’ve played. I think they’re all big. You clearly can see anybody can beat anybody on a given night. I think it would be a mistake to treat one game bigger than the other.”
Records
UTSA 17-2, 10-0
South Florida 13-8, 6-2
Coming up
UTSA at South Florida, tonight, 6 p.m.
Temple at UTSA, Saturday, 2 p.m.
North Texas at UTSA, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 6:30 p.m.
UTSA at Wichita State, Saturday, Feb. 8, 1 p.m.
Notable
Aston said the break in the schedule, without having to play a game last weekend, came at a good time. “We had some kids dinged up a little bit,” she said. “Fatigue was starting to set in just from the length of the schedule, travel, all of that, school starting again. So it was a good time for us to push a re-set button.
“The kids got acclimated a little bit in going back to school. It’s always kind of a learning curve when they all start back to school again, especially for the freshmen that have never really experienced the Christmas break and then back into classes again. So I think we’ve settled in. Just a time to take a deep breath and have an extra day off.”
UTSA beat South Florida twice last year, once by a 65-42 score in San Antonio and again by a 58-56 count in Fort Worth at the AAC tournament in Fort Worth.
Tonight will be the first time UTSA will face 6-foot-1 South Florida sharpshooter Sammie Puisis, who had to sit out most of last season with a knee injury. Puisis, who averages 14.7 points, shoots 43.2 percent from the three-point line. The Bulls are No. 1 in the conference at 36.2 in three-point accuracy.