SAN ANTONIO — Junior Ashley Gardner scored a career-high 19 points and the UTSA women’s basketball team won its third consecutive game with an 80-68 victory against Northwestern State on Wednesday night. The victory extended the Roadrunners’ winning streak to nine against the Lady Demons.
UTSA (7-10, 3-1 SLC) led from start to finish for the second game in a row and have not faced a deficit in their last 118 minutes of game action.
Senior Alysse Davis finished with 17 points, while fellow senior Amber Gregg and sophomore Jermini Malone both reached double figures with 11 and 10, respectively.
Jordi James paced Northwestern State (7-10, 2-2 SLC) with 18 points.
UTSA jumped ahead early with a 13-4 run.
Senior Ashleigh Franklin put the Birds on the scoreboard with a jumper on the team's first possession and Davis followed with a bucket. Another Franklin basket and a free throw from sophomore Lyndi Thorman capped the opening stretch.
The Lady Demons clamped down on the defensive end to claw back into the contest.
Full-court pressure and a suffocating zone defense held the Roadrunners without a field goal for five-and-a-half minutes, allowing the NSU to cut the deficit to one at 17-16.
However, that would be the closest Northwestern State would get the remainder of the night, as UTSA responded with seven consecutive points to rebuild the lead.
Sophomore Cori Cooper’s three-point play gave the Roadrunners their largest lead of the half, 36-25, and UTSA took a 39-31 advantage into the locker room.
Gardner hit a jumper and back-to-back 3-pointers in the opening minutes of the second half to fuel a 10-2 run, which extended the lead to 18 (49-33).
Each time the Lady Demons threatened, the Roadrunners came up with a big basket.
After a Jasmine Bradley jumper made it 54-45, a Davis 3-pointer and a basket by Gregg pushed the lead back to 14 at the 13:14 mark. With the score at 59-51 minutes later, Malone’s three-point play put the advantage back to double digits for good.
A free throw from Gregg gave the Roadrunners their largest lead, 20, and they never looked back en route to the 12-point triumph.
UTSA finished the game shooting 44 percent, its best performance since a 46-percent effort against Kansas State (Dec. 20), and nine of 10 players that entered the game managed to put a mark in the scoring column.
The Roadrunners hit the hardwood again on Saturday when they travel to San Marcos for a 4 p.m. matchup at I-35 rival Texas State (5-11, 0-3 SLC).
