Dec. 11, 2005
Contact: Rick Nixon (210) 458-4551
Jackson State holds off UTSA, 78-75
Box Score
SAN ANTONIO – Freshman Eric Young (Houston, Texas) scored a career-high 17 points, but Trey Johnson poured in a game-high 25 points as Jackson State held off the UTSA men’s basketball team, 78-75, Sunday afternoon at the Convocation Center.
UTSA, which fell to 3-4 on the season, placed two in double figures as Kurt Attaway (Flower Mound, Texas) backed Young with 13 points.
Charlie White added 13 points for Jackson State (3-6) which led for almost the entire game.
“We did not have a good enough effort this afternoon against a team which looked like they wanted it more than we did today,” said UTSA coach Tim Carter. “We are not a good enough team not to hit the floor on loose balls or go to the glass for rebounds and Jackson State made us pay for that.”
Jackson State opened the game on an 11-3 run through the first 4:30, helped strongly by a 5-for-6 performance from the free throw line. The lead grew to 12 at 19-7 with 13:05 left in the half.
The Roadrunners rallied from a 25-16 deficit with a 6-0 run capped by a lay-up by freshman Nkem Ojougboh (Scottsdale, Ariz.) that made it 25-22 with 6:05 left before the break. UTSA got as close as two at 30-28 on a pair of free throws by Young at the 4:12 mark, but the Tigers ran off nine straight points to push the lead back to 11 at 39-28 with just over two minutes left.
UTSA sliced the Jackson State lead in half with a late run as junior Kyile Byrd’s (Grand Prairie, Texas) follow from the right side of the paint at the buzzer made it 40-35 at the half.
Jackson State shot 46.4 percent from the floor and drained 13-of-14 free throws in the half, while UTSA hit on 13-of-30 (43.3 percent) from the field, including an 1-for-7 effort from behind the arc. The Tigers also out-rebounded the Roadrunners, 22-12, including 7-3 on the offensive glass.
The Tigers again built an eight point lead to start the second half and answered every Roadrunner run with a big basket. Junior Chris Thompson (Austin, Texas) converted a 3-point play at the 11:46 mark to cut the deficit to five at 51-46, but Catraiva Givens drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key to answer. Byrd knocked down a deep 3-pointer from the left to pull UTSA to within five with just over nine minutes remaining.
Junior Abe Donlon (Tulsa, Okla.) cut the Tigers’ lead to three at 61-58 with a 3-point play at the 7:52 mark, but Charlie White’s lay-up and a pair of free throws by Jeremy Caldwell pushed the advantage back to seven, 65-58, with 6:52 remaining.
Junior Gabe Bernard (Los Angeles, Calif.) drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key at the 1:05 mark to pull the Roadrunners to within three at 72-69 and an Attaway free throw cut it to 73-71 with 23.7 seconds left.
Jackson State, which connected on 24 of 28 free throws on the afternoon, made five of six down the stretch. After Dakari Wallace hit one of two free throws with six seconds remaining, Attaway missed a desperation 3-point field goal attempt from about 30-feet at the final buzzer.
The Roadrunners return to action next Tuesday, Dec. 20, when they travel to Las Cruces, N.M., for a non-conference game at New Mexico State that tips off at 8:05 CST.