EDINBURG – Junior Keith Spencer led three Roadrunners in double figures with 17 points, but Texas-Pan American overcame a 20-3 UTSA run to start the second half and held on for a 69-64 victory Wednesday night at UTPA Fieldhouse.
With the win, the Broncs improved to 7-5 on the season, while the Roadrunners fell to 4-7.
Spencer posted a season-high 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the floor, while junior Melvin Smith posted 16 points, his seventh straight game in double digits. Senior Kurt Attaway added 11 points and five assists, while Smith contributed five assists and five steals. Junior Andrew Francis registered eight points and a team-high nine rebounds in his UTSA debut.
Colin Lien led UTPA with 17 points and six rebounds, while Paul Stoll (12), Brian Burrell (11) and Jonathan Chatman (11) also scored in double figures. The Broncs shot 55 percent from the field, including 10-of-19 from behind the 3-point arc.
Attaway scored nine points during a 20-3 run to start the second half as UTSA erased a 32-24 halftime deficit and took a 44-35 lead on a Smith jumper at the 14:04 mark. The Roadrunners held on to that lead for the next six minutes until a 3-pointer and a jumper by Chatman gave the Broncs a 49-48 advantage with just over eight minutes remaining.
The game was back and forth until Dexter Shankle broke a 58-58 tie with a trey from the left wing to give UTPA the lead for good. The Roadrunners cut it to 67-64 with 10 seconds left on a Francis jumper in the lane, but Stoll drained two free throws with 5.9 seconds remaining to ice it.
The Roadrunners travel to Fort Worth next Wednesday to face TCU at 7 p.m.
