HATTIESBURG, Miss. — UTSA dropped its inaugural Conference USA road game at Southern Mississippi, 70-57, on Saturday at Reed Green Coliseum despite a game-high 21 points from junior Kamra King.
King was the only Roadrunner to score in double figures for UTSA (9-6, 0-2 C-USA) topping the 20-point plateau for the fourth time this season.
The nation’s leader in assists per game Jamierra Faulkner had a team-high 19 points and 12 assists for the Golden Eagles (13-2, 2-0 C-USA). Tamara Jones notched 15 points on 16 field goal attempts.
McKenzie Adams, making her first start of the season, had five points in UTSA’s 12-10 stretch to open the game, but that would be the final lead of the contest for the Roadrunners.
Southern Miss, coming off a conference-opening 67-56 victory at Louisiana Tech on Wednesday night, then broke the game open with a 19-5 run to take and extend their lead to 29-17 at the 5:40 mark of the half on a jumper by Alex Coyne.
King kept the Roadrunners in it with 13 points, going 5-of-6 from the field including a pair of 3-pointers.
After hitting six of its first 10 shots, UTSA connected on four of its final 13 field goal attempts to give Southern Miss a 35-26 advantage at halftime. The Golden Eagles had nine players score in the opening half with Faulkner leading the way with a team-high seven points and seven assists.
Faulkner continued her stellar play in the second half with 12 points and another five assists. UTSA got as close as nine with 12:08 remaining but were unable to connect shooting 36.4 percent (8-for-22) in the second half.
The Roadrunners return home Wednesday to take on Charlotte (7-7, 1-0 C-USA) at 7 p.m. in search of its first C-USA win.