Roadrunner women's basketball program hosts Northern Colorado in first round Thursday night
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On Sunday, March 22, 2009, the UTSA Roadrunner women's basketball team took the floor at Lubbock's United Supermarkets Arena for an NCAA tournament first-round game against the two-seed Baylor Lady Bears. It was the second year in a row UTSA had made the NCAA tournament as champions of the Southland Conference Tournament.
The Roadrunners and Bears played a competitive game with UTSA even leading in the second half before Baylor forced overtime. In overtime, the Bears eliminated the Roadrunners with an 87-82 win to advance to the round of 32.
UTSA came away from the loss to Baylor believing the program was on an upward swing. After all, the Roadrunners had only lost by five in overtime to Baylor a year after being defeated 91-52 against two-seed Texas A&M in the 2008 NCAA tournament. The 2008-09 Roadrunners had four seniors and the rest were juniors, sophomores, and freshmen. At the time the future seemed bright for the Roadrunners.
Few could have guessed that it would be 15 years before the UTSA women's basketball program reached a national postseason tournament again. After a decade and a half the Roadrunners are back on the national stage, albeit not in the same tournament as their predecessors.
UTSA was two conference tournament wins away from reaching the NCAA tournament this year but the Roadrunners 17-14 record was good enough to earn an at-large invite to the Women's NIT (WNIT). Just like the 2008-09 Roadrunners, this version of the Roadrunners will play their first-round game in the state of Texas. They won't have to go to Lubbock or another part of the state.
This time the Roadrunners will get to host their postseason game. The Roadrunners will welcome the Northern Colorado Bears to the Convocation Center on Thursday night. The ball goes up at 6:30 p.m.
Northern Colorado is similar to UTSA in that its head coach, Kristen Mattio, is in her third year with the program. The Bears finished the season 15-15 overall and 10-8 in the Big Sky Conference. As the five-seed in the Big Sky Conference, the Bears fell to four-seed Montana in the conference tournament.
The Bears average 65.2 points per game and opponents are averaging 61.9 points per game. UTSA averages 64.1 points per game and opponents of the Roadrunners are averaging 63 points per game.
Northern Colorado's leading scorer this season has been Delaynie Byrne with 409 points (13.6 points per game). Elyssa Coleman leads UTSA in points with 317 (10.9 per game). Jordyn Jenkins has the best scoring average for UTSA with 15.1 points per game in her short time since returning from injury.
Historically, Northern Colorado has only been an NCAA Division I program since the 2003-04 season and joined the Big Sky before the 2006-07 season. The Bears have one trip to the NCAA tournament in 2018 but have played in the WNIT four times. Their best finish in the WNIT was in 2015 when the Bears reached the round of 16.
UTSA will be looking to get their first win in a national postseason tournament in program history against Northern Colorado. The Roadrunner's only other postseason trips were those NCAA tournaments in 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons.
The winner of UTSA-Northern Colorado will move on to face Wyoming in the second round sometime between March 23-26. It's possible UTSA could be able to host that second-round game against Wyoming if they can get past Northern Colorado.
But first, they have to knock off the Northern Colorado Bears on Thursday night.
FORUMS: UTSA Boulevard | Roadrunner Way
