Editor’s note: UTSA announced Monday that 6-foot-4 forward Nyayongah Gony is out for the season with a knee injury. Gony plans to exercise her COVID year to play a fifth and final collegiate season with the Roadrunners in 2025-26, according to a news release.
By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
The UTSA women have joined elite company.
The Roadrunners emerged after Saturday’s games as one of 20 teams in the nation — and only one of six from outside the Power 4 conferences or the Big East — with two or fewer losses, according to records posted on Sunday morning at ncaa.com.
The six so-called ‘mid-major’ programs include Grand Canyon, UTSA, Montana State, Quinnipiac, Buffalo and Harvard. (Please see the list below).
The Roadrunners won their their ninth straight game and improved to 16-2 on the season Saturday afternoon, downing the UAB Blazers, 73-63, on the road in Birmingham, Ala.
In the contest played at UAB’s Bartow Arena, forward Jordyn Jenkins scored 21 points, and the Roadrunners hit nine 3-point shots to remain perfect in the American Athletic Conference at 7-0.
With the victory, UTSA swept a two-game road trip through Memphis and Birmingham, extending a remarkable winning streak to nine for the first time since the 2008-09 season.
Another historical note suggests that good things could be on the horizon, since ’08-’09 was also the last time the Roadrunners made the NCAA tournament.
UTSA controlled the action from the start, building a 35-26 lead at halftime and then increasing it gradually in the second half.
At one point, the Roadrunners surged ahead by 23 points late in the third quarter before they slowed the pace.
Jenkins, a player of the year candidate in the American, hit six of 13 shots from the field and two of five from three.
She was also seven of eight at the free-throw line to lead the Roadrunners, who hit 16 of 21 freebies as a team. Jenkins played hard on both ends, blocking one shot and making a couple of steals.
Nina De Leon Negron and Sidney Love, UTSA’s starting backcourt, each scored 14 points. Both players knocked down a pair of threes.
Forward Jade Weathersby led the Blazers with 15 points and six rebounds. Weathersby was five of nine from the field. Three of her rebounds came on the offensive end.
Forward Maddie Walsh, UAB’s leading scorer at 12 points per game, was held to five. Guard Journey Armstead, who played well in San Antonio on Jan. 1, also was held to five.
The Roadrunners beat the Blazers 67-56 at the Convocation Center on New Years night.
Records
UTSA 16-2, 7-0
UAB 12-7, 3-4
Coming up
Tulsa at UTSA, Wednesday, 6:30 p.m.
Notable
Forward Maya Linton was scoreless in 19 minutes, returning to the team after a family matter prevented her from making the trip to Memphis.
UAB center Rayne Tucker did not play for the Blazers. Tucker had 16 points and seven rebounds against UTSA on Jan. 1 in San Antonio.
Two or fewer losses
Here is a list of NCAA Division I women’s basketball teams with two or fewer losses after games of Saturday, Jan. 18:
x-LSU 19-0
x-Ohio State 17-0
x-UCLA 17-0
x-TCU 19-1
x-Kansas State 18-1
x-South Carolina 17-1
x-Maryland 16-1
x-USC 16-1
x-Kentucky 15-1
x-Texas 17-2
y-Grand Canyon 17-2
y-UTSA 16-2
z-Connecticut 16-2
y-Montana State 16-2
x-Minnesota 16-2
x-Notre Dame 15-2
y-Quinnipiac 15-2
y-Buffalo 15-2
x-Tennessee 15-2
y-Harvard 13-2
x-From Power 4 conferences
y-From sub-Power 4 conferences
z-From the Big East