| Junior Isaiah Allen poured in a season-high 25 points on Monday night. |
SAN ANTONIO – Junior Isaiah Allen scored a season-high 25 points on the strength of six 3-pointers and junior Melvin Smith added 17 as UTSA snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 72-64 victory over Texas-Arlington on Monday night at the Convocation Center.
The Roadrunners won for the first time since a 64-60 decision against Texas Wesleyan on Dec. 9 and improved to 5-13 overall and 1-4 in the Southland Conference. The Mavericks fell to 5-13 and 1-5.
Allen, who was just 3-of-19 from behind the arc in four previous conference games, drained 6-of-8 from downtown to top his previous season-high of 22 against Gonzaga. He fell just shy of the school record of eight held by three players, the last being Rodric Hall during the 1996-97 season.
Smith added 17 points, his 13th double-digit outing in the last 14 contests, while senior Kurt Attaway posted 12 points and nine assists. Junior Keith Spencer pulled down a game-high eight rebounds to go along with eight points and four dimes.
Rodrick Epps led UTA with 23 points, while Larry Posey and Anthony Vereen added 12 and 10, respectively.
Allen helped UTSA overcome a 7-0 deficit out of the gates, draining 4-of-5 3-pointers over a six-minute span, the last from the right corner to give the Roadrunners a 22-20 lead at the 8:03 mark.
UTA also was hot from downtown in the first half, making 4-of-5, including three from Epps. A Smith jumper and a Spencer tip-in during the final 50 seconds gave UTSA its first halftime lead in eight games, a 35-31 advantage.
A thunderous, one-handed dunk by junior Andrew Francis helped spark a 10-0 run after UTA had cut the lead to two at 37-35. Allen’s fifth trey of the night capped the run and gave UTSA a 47-35 advantage at the 15:20 mark. UTSA extended the lead to 17 on his sixth 3-pointer with 10:41 to play.
A Larry Posey layup at the 6:01 mark pulled UTA to within nine and an Epps steal and lay-up made it 57-50 with 5:37 to play. A long-range 3-pointer from the left wing by Ro’Ger Guignard cut the deficit to four with just over five minutes left.
Spencer ended a 4:11 scoring drought for UTSA with a layup at the 3:59 mark, putting the Roadrunners up, 59-53. However, Guignard drained another trey from the top of the key one minute later to make it 59-56.
Epps was good on a driving layup with 1:25 to play, but Smith caught a long pass from Spencer and was intentionally fouled, resulting in a six-point lead after two free throws and a Francis follow. Vereen made two freebies for the Mavericks, but that was as close as UTA would get as Attaway had a layup and four free throws in the final minute to seal it.
The Roadrunners host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday at 6 p.m.