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UTSA advances to C-USA Quarterfinals

Roadrunners hold off Charlotte 72-62 in first round of Conference USA tournament

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Jacob Germany finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds against Charlotte on Wednesday night.
Jacob Germany finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds against Charlotte on Wednesday night. (Stephen Whitaker)

FRISCO, TEXAS --- UTSA kept their hopes of a golden ticket to the NCAA tournament alive for one more day with a 72-62 win over the East Division's five seed Charlotte 49ers in first round action at the Conference USA Tournament on Wednesday Night at the Ford Center.

The Roadrunners led for 37:29 of the 40 minutes on Wednesday night. Charlotte opened the game playing their slow style. The first five minutes of the game saw the lead change hands five times with the score tied once. The fifth lead change proved to be the last one. UTSA went ahead 10-9 with 14:44 left in the first half on a jumper from Jhivvan Jackson. The score remained 10-9 for the next 2:53 before Jackson knocked down a three to give himself 10 points and UTSA a 13-9 lead with 11:51 left in the half.

On offense we had a stretch where Jhivvan was really really hot," UTSA Head Coach Steve Henson said. I was a little concerned that we would start watching him. At one point it felt like it was Jhivvan scoring for us and Young scoring for them. We also got other people involved and we did. That was a good thing."

Over the course of the next three and a half minutes UTSA's lead pinballed between a high of seven points and a low of two points. The 49ers got to within two, 19-17, with 8:10 left in the half before UTSA went on a 14-2 run over the next four minutes to take control of the half and lead 33-19 at the four minute media timeout.

The 49ers got to within 10 points with 3:19 before the half but the Roadrunners closed the half with an 8-3 run to take a 41-26 lead into the locker room.

"We did some really good things in the first half," Henson said. "We competed well in the first half. I liked what we did on the defensive end. I was proud of our guys for hanging in there."

Charlotte came out a different team in the second half. The 49ers opened the second 20-minute frame with a 9-4 run in the first 4:19 to cut the Roadrunner lead down to 10 points.

A minute later at the 14:30 mark of the second half the 49ers cut the Roadrunner lead to single digits, 47-38 with a fast-break three. Charlotte would cut the Roadrunner lead as close as four points, 53-49, with 8:57 left in the second half.

"We knew they were going to try and get into their groove and slow the game down," Jacob Germany said. "We did a good job of responding and controlling the game all the way through."

As has been the case the last four years, whenever UTSA needed them, either Jackson or Keaton Wallace would step up. This time it was Wallace who drove the paint and knocked down a jumper to give UTSA a 55-49 lead with 8:10 remaining. The Roadrunner lead went back to double digits for good with 3:31 left in the second half.

The 49ers were helped out by a large number of free throw attempts. On the night Charlotte made 23 of their 30 free throws. UTSA only went to the line 11 times on Wednesday night but made 10 of their 11 free throw attempts. Of the Roadrunner free throw attempts, four came in the final minute of the game, when Charlotte was trying to prolong the game and all four were sunk, two each by Erik Czumbel and Jordan Ivy-Curry.

Wallace led the Roadrunners with 20 points. Jackson finished with 18 points and was one rebound away from a double-double. Germany did get a double-double, finishing with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

Ivy-Curry ended up with eight points and Czumbel pitched in four points. Eric Parrish, Cedrick Alley and Phoenix Ford each had two points on Wednesday.

The win over Charlotte was the Roadrunners first win in the Conference USA tournament since an opening round win over UTEP in the 2018 Conference USA tournament.

"We are excited," Germany said after the win. "We are going to enjoy it for about the next 20 or 30 minutes. We came here to play more than one game. We're locked in for the next one."

The win came on the 10th anniversary of the Roadrunners upset of Sam Houston in the 2011 Southland Conference tournament semifinals. That year the seven seeded Roadrunners won the Southland and advanced to their fourth NCAA tournament in program history.

It remains the last time the Roadrunners had that golden ticket to the big dance. If this year's Roadrunners hope to become the fifth team in program history to make the tournament they will have to win three more times starting on Thursday.

It will certainly be a tougher road than the one faced by that Roadrunner team 10 years ago in Katy.

Next up for the 2021 Roadrunners is the challenge of facing Western Kentucky, the top team in the east division. UTSA and the Hilltoppers will square off on court A tomorrow evening at 5:30 p.m.

The winner of that game will advance to face the winner of Rice/UAB in the conference semifinals on Friday at 11 a.m.

NEXT GAME: UTSA (15-10) will face East Division 1 seed Western Kentucky at the Ford Center in Frisco on Thursday Night at 5:30 p.m.

FORUMS: UTSA Boulevard | Roadrunner Way

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