SAN ANTONIO — Tesha Smith rebounded her own shot with less than a second left and tipped the ball in to beat the buzzer to lead UTSA to a 54-52 victory against UAB on Thursday night at the Convocation Center.
In search of its first Conference USA win of the season, the Roadrunners (5-8, 1-2 C-USA) had possession of the ball in the final 46 seconds of play. After two missed shots, head coach Lubomyr Lichonczak called for a timeout to regroup his team.
UTSA worked the clock down to the final seconds and Smith tipped in the ball with a tenth of a second left to lead the Roadrunners to their first league win of the season.
Sara Anastasieska paced UTSA with a career-high 19 points off the bench, to go with three assists and a rebound. Meanwhile, Akunna Elonu collected 10 points with seven rebounds, a steal and a block.
UAB (7-6, 0-2 C-USA), which came into the contest outscoring its opponents by 8.5 points per game, now have dropped both league games.
UTSA held a 22-21 advantage at the half, but the Blazers managed to take a lead in the third quarter. After opening the second half on back-to-back 3-pointers, UAB led, 27-22.
Eleven straight points for the Roadrunners flipped the score and the home team was on top, 33-27. UTSA led by as many as eight in the third quarter but the Blazers scored the final 10 points of the period to tie the score at 38.
The fourth quarter was a back-and-forth battle as four times three lead changes resulted. UAB held its final lead of the game at the 2:26 mark and scored only once more the rest of the way.
UTSA will host Middle Tennessee at 2 p.m. on Saturday.