| Senior Demarco Stepter led UTSA with 15 points on Saturday afternoon. |
SAN ANTONIO — Seniors Demarco Stepter and Terry Fields combined for 29 points and UTSA snapped its five-game losing streak with a 64-57 victory against Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday afternoon at the Convocation Center.
Stepter was 6-for-7 from the floor and 2-of-2 from the free-throw line en route to a team-high 15 points, while Fields posted 14 points, six rebounds and four assists to help the Roadrunners improve to 13-8 overall and 3-5 in the Southland Conference.
"It's good to get back in the win column," head coach Brooks Thompson said. "I thought we did several things well Wednesday night at Sam Houston and that carried over into today. We made great decisions and took good possessions on the offensive end and we guarded well. When you do those things well, you have a chance to be successful."
Patrick Sullivan led all players with 19 points, while Jason Marks added 13 and six boards for the Lions (13-9, 5-4 SLC).
Looking to snap the program’s losing streak since dropping five straight from Jan. 23-Feb. 9, 2008, the Roadrunners took control early behind Stepter’s inside presence. The Memphis native made his first four field goals, the last on a layup at the midway point of the half to give UTSA a 20-12 lead.
Sullivan scored 15 of his points in the first half, making 6-of-7 from the floor and 3-of-3 from the line, but it was not enough to overcome Stepter and UTSA’s hot shooting from beyond the arc.
Freshman Melvin Johnson III, who finished with 10 points, drained a trio of 3-pointers and senior Morris Smith IV was 2-for-2, as the Roadrunners made 7-of-11 from downtown in the first. Johnson III’s last trey came from five feet behind the line just before the buzzer to help hand UTSA a 37-28 halftime advantage.
UTSA never trailed and shot 43.1 percent (22-51) for the game, including 7-of-15 from downtown. The Roadrunners missed all four long-range attempts in the second half, but Southeastern Louisiana had more trouble finding the bottom of the net.
The Lions missed their first 14 3-point attempts before Rodney Jones finally found the bottom of the net with 1:35 to play to pull Southeastern to within 61-54. Stepter quickly answered with a layup to push the lead back to nine.
In the final seconds, Brandon Fortenberry struck from downtown to make it a two possession game with 10 ticks on the clock, but Johnson III made 1-of-2 from the line to seal UTSA’s eighth home win in 10 tries this season.
UTSA made 13-of-16 (81.3 percent) from the free-throw line and out-rebounded the taller Lions, 36-26. Southeastern shot 43.4 percent (23-53), but struggled to a 2-for-17 showing (11.8 percent) from behind the arc.
The Roadrunners travel to Conway, Ark., to face Central Arkansas at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 10.