| March 11, 2004 |
UTSA hosts Stephen F. Austin for Southland Conference Tournament Championship and automatic NCAA bid
SAN ANTONIO - Looking for the schools third appearance in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, the UTSA Roadrunners will return home to host the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks on Friday, March 12 at 3:30 p.m. CST in championship game of the 2004 Southland Conference Men's Basketball Tournament. The game, which will be played in the UTSA Convocation Center, will be televised nationally by ESPN2. It can also be heard locally on KSJL Radio 810 AM and at www.goUTSA.com.
UTSA, 18-13, and Stephen F. Austin, 21-8, both have made their way to the championship in similar fashion. The No. 3 seed, UTSA opened tournament play with a 78-73 home win over Texas State on March 8, and followed that with an improbable come-from-behind win at Southeastern Louisiana on March 10. The Roadrunners trailed by as many as 15 points in the second half, and by four with 26 seconds remaining before rallying for the win.
Stephen F. Austin, the No. 4 seed, won easily on Monday by a 85-63 count over Sam Houston State, before having to rally from a five-point deficit with 27 seconds to play to defeat Texas-Arlington, 69-68 on Wednesday. A 3-point field goal by Antonio Burks with 4.9 seconds to play clinched the win for the Lumberjacks.
Friday's meeting between the two teams will be the second this season, with Stephen F. Austin scoring a 69-60 victory over UTSA on Feb. 4 in Nacogdoches. The Lumberjacks have won the last four meetings with UTSA, but trail the all-time series by a 16-9 margin. This will be the first-ever meeting between the two schools in tournament play.
UTSA, the SLC's leading scoring team, is led by conference scoring champion LeRoy Hurd, who averaged 19.3 points per game. Hurd, a 6-7 senior forward, was named the SLC Player of the Year last week after leading the conference in scoring for the second straight season. Junior guard Rapheal Posey backs Hurd with an 11.6 points per game average. Conference Freshman of the Year Kurt Attaway is coming off of a career-high 24 points in the win Wednesday at Southeastern Louisiana.
Stephen F. Austin, which is only 5-8 on the road this season, is led by Burks, who averages 15.4 points per game. Burks, a first team all-conference selection, is one of the top 3-point shooters in the nation at 48.1 percent. The championship appearance will be the second straight for the Lumberjacks, who dropped an overtime game at Sam Houston State last season.