HOUSTON — Tesha Smith scored a career-high 21 points to lead UTSA to a 60-49 victory at Rice on Thursday night at Tudor Fieldhouse.
The sophomore forward was 9-of-15 from the field and a perfect 3-for-3 from the charity stripe. Akunna Elonu was the only other Roadrunner in double figures with 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field to go along with nine rebounds.
UTSA (15-14, 10-7 C-USA) moved into a tie for fifth place with UAB in the league standings.
The Owls (8-20, 3-14 C-USA) led through much of the first 20 minutes, but a late 6-0 run by the Roadrunners made it a three-point game, 21-18. With 3:52 left before intermission, Mathilde Hergott drained a triple to pull UTSA to within one at 22-21. On the following possession, Smith drained a jumper underneath the basket, which gave UTSA a 23-22 lead.
Alana Heard completed the Birds’ 13-1 run with a pair of free throws, as the score bounced back-and-forth in the final 2:24 of the half. Smith gave UTSA its final lead of the first stanza on another jumper with 1:10 to play and Kamra King completed 1-of-2 free throws for the 28-26 halftime lead.
The Roadrunners carried their momentum into the second half and the advantage continued to grow. UTSA led by as many as 15 points following Niaga Mitchell-Cole's jumper with 3:10 remianing.
Shani Rainey paced Rice with a career-best 22 points and four rebounds.
The Roadrunners will be back in action at 7 p.m. on Saturday when they close regular season play against North Texas (5-22, 4-12 C-USA). The contest will take place at Kitty Magee Arena on the campus of Texas Women’s University.