By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
After losing four of their last five games, the UTSA women face an American Conference juggernaut today in Houston as a tune-up for postseason play next week.
The Roadrunners will play the conference’s regular-season champion Rice Owls at 2 p.m. at Tudor Fieldhouse. Rice has won 22 games in a row in a 27-3 season.
They have swept to victories in all 17 of their games in conference leading into the second match of the season against the Roadrunners, last year’s champs in the American.
The Roadrunners won the conference’s regular-season title last year at 17-1, but they have struggled lately just to maintain a level of consistency over four quarters.
On Wednesday night, UTSA barely broke the 40-point level, losing its home finale 53-41 to the Tulsa Golden Hurricane.
As a result, the Roadrunners will travel into Houston at 13-15 overall and 8-9 in the American.
The bracket for next week’s conference tournament in Birmingham is expected to be announced tonight. The American’s postseason showcase opens next Tuesday and runs through next Saturday.
From all indications, UTSA is locked into a No. 6 seed and thus will get a first-round bye, which means the Roadrunners are expected to open tournament play on Wednesday.
The Roadrunners will draw the winner of a first-round game between the seventh and tenth seeds. If they win, they’d play on Thursday against the No. 3 seed.
Records
UTSA 13-15, 8-9
Rice 27-3, 17-0
Coming up
UTSA at Rice, today, 2 p.m.
Notable
The Roadrunners and the Owls played on Jan. 31 in San Antonio. In that meeting, Rice led by three at halftime and then broke the game open in the third period on the way to a 65-55 victory.
Rice guard Victoria Flores scored 33 points on eight of 10 shooting from the field. Flores knocked down four of six from three and 13 of 14 from the free-throw line.
On the defensive end, the Owls held the Roadrunners to 29.7 percent shooting from the field. UTSA could hit only seven of 36 shots in the second half.
Rice was the more opportunistic team in the first meeting. For the game, the Owls scored 21 points off 15 Roadrunners turnovers. The Roadrunners scored 13 points off 20 turnovers for the Owls.