Roadrunners sweep weekend series with Florida Atlantic to notch 10 wins at home for the fifth straight season
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The weather in San Antonio might have been reaching record lows this weekend but the Roadrunners returned to town as hot as Texas in August.
After getting off to a slow start in conference the Roadrunners caught fire in the last two weeks of January, closing out that month with wins in three out of four games. If not for a loss on the road at UTEP the Roadrunners would have finished January with four straight wins.
Last week UTSA went on the road and swept a pair of games against FIU. The win last Friday night was the Roadrunners first road win of the season after starting 0-8. On Saturday afternoon the Roadrunners set new program records in a 90-47 win over FIU. The 43 point margin of victory was the largest road win in program history. The Roadrunners also made 19-of-19 free throws and had 19 steals against the Panthers.
Riding the momentum of that sweep in Miami the Roadrunners returned home to the friendly confines of the Historic Convocation Center for a series with the Florida Atlantic Owls. While the Roadrunners had been riding high toward the end of January and early February, the Owls had not played a game since January 23 when they took the court on Friday night.
Friday Night: UTSA 84, FAU 80
In the early going it was apparent that UTSA was still riding high on their successful trip to Miami. It was also apparent that Florida Atlantic had some rust to knock off. UTSA opened the game on a 6-0 run. Jacob Germany sparked the fast start as he accounted for six of the Roadrunners first 11 points. UTSA opened the game making their first four shots and five of their first six.
Germany finished the night with a career high 26 points to go with 12 rebounds and three blocked shots.
"It's huge that they have the confidence to get me the ball," Germany said. "It builds our team and helps us play better as a group. It was the way they were defending us. I was able to make plays."
UTSA eventually pushed their lead to 11 points when they led 15-4 with 14:42 left in the first half. The Roadrunners didn't give up that lead the rest of the first half but Florida Atlantic did cut into it over the course of the half. The Owls fought back and tied the score at 37 with 3:10 left in the half. UTSA then closed the half on a 7-4 run to take a 44-41 lead into halftime.
In the second half the Owls came out a little better than they had to start the first half. Still the Roadrunners were able to answer each Owls push. Eventually the Owls used a 5-0 run and took their first lead of the night at 55-54 with 12:49 left to play.
"They had a stretch where they were just killing us, grabbing like four offensive rebounds in one possession. " Jhivvan Jackson said. "In the last eight or nine minutes we had to limit them to one shot."
The Roadrunners retook the lead soon after and the two teams traded the lead back and forth for a few minutes. Florida Atlantic took their largest lead of the night at 64-61 with 9:49 to play. The Roadrunners responded with a 12-2 run over the next five minutes of action to take a 73-66 lead with 4:35 left in the game.
Over the next four minutes the Roadrunners held onto their lead and even increased it to 10 points, 80-70 with 33 seconds left. What should have been an easy victory turned into a nerve wracking final 33 seconds as the Owls mounted a 10-4 run before the clock ran out with UTSA hanging on to the win.
"We brought too much drama into it," Henson said. "There were a lot of positives. We did a good job of responding when they came at us early in the second half. It was a good win for us."
Germany's career high of 26 points was good for second among the Roadrunners on Friday night. Jackson led the Roadrunners with 30 points with 12 of those coming from beyond the arc. Cedrick Alley was the third Roadrunner in double figures with 14 points.
Saturday Afternoon: UTSA 86, FAU 75
UTSA completed the sweep of the Florida Atlantic Owls on Saturday afternoon by holding on to their double-digit advantage in the final seconds.
Florida Atlantic wasn't as rusty on Saturday as they had been on Friday but the Roadrunners were still able to take the early lead on a shot from Jacob Germany. After the Owls tied the score at two the Roadrunners went on a 10-2 run to take a 12-4 lead with 15:17 left in the first half.
The Owls responded with an 11-3 run to tie the score at 15 leading into the under-12 minute media timeout. The Owls would take their first lead of the afternoon at the 9:17 mark when they went up 19-18. 40 seconds later the Owls had their largest lead of the afternoon, 21-18 before the Roadrunners cut it to one with an Eric Parrish layup.
Jhivvan Jackson then added a pair of free throws to put UTSA ahead 22-21. The Owls answered with a pullup jumper to take a 23-22 lead at the 7:43 mark of the first half. That proved to be last time the Owls would have the lead on Saturday afternoon.
Jackson knocked down a three to give UTSA a 25-23 lead and then Jordan Ivy-Curry added a midrange jumper to push UTSA ahead 27-23. The Roadrunner lead pinballed between one point and five the rest of the half before Keaton Wallace put the Roadrunners up seven before the end of the half.
In the second half the Owls never got closer than five points from the Roadrunners. The Roadrunners lead grew to as much as 15 at one point in the second half.
For the second game in a row Jackson led the Roadrunners scoring efforts. Five Roadrunners scored in double figures. On Saturday Jackson finished with 20 points as well as 9 assists and seven rebounds. Parrish finished with 15 points and five rebounds. Wallace added 14 points as well as five assists and four rebounds. Erik Czumbel finished with 11 points and Cedrick Alley had 10 points. Germany was one point short of double digits, ending up with nine points.
The victory over the Owls on Saturday was the Roadrunners 10th at home this season. UTSA has won at least 10 games at home in all five seasons in the Henson era.
Wallace entered the afternoon just 50 points away from 2,000 for his career. After scoring 14 points on Saturday he needs just 36 in the final four games of the regular season to become the second Roadrunner ever to reach 2,000 points.
The Roadrunners will now try to keep their hot run of form going on the road next weekend.
NEXT WEEK: UTSA (12-9, 8-6 conference) will hit the road for their final road trip of the season. The Roadrunners will be in the hills of North Carolina to take on the Charlotte 49ers. The Friday night game is scheduled for 5 p.m. CST. The Saturday game is scheduled for 3 p.m. CST.
UTSA returns home for a two game series with UAB on February 26.
