SAN ANTONIO — Playing in his final home game, senior Ryan Bowie scored a game-high 24 points to lead UTSA to a 74-53 victory against Southern Miss on Saturday at the Convocation Center.
Bowie hit a career-best six 3-pointers to go along with six free throws en route to his fifth consecutive game with at least 20 points for the Roadrunners (5-23, 3-12 C-USA), who drained a season-high 14 treys. Christian Wilson added 16 points and a career-high nine assists, while J.R. Harris hit five triples for 15 points.
UTSA shot 51 percent and held a 39-21 rebounding edge.
Meanwhile, Kourtlin Jackson was the only player to score in double figures for the Golden Eagles (7-18, 4-10 C-USA), who shot just 32.7 percent in the contest.
The Roadrunners started fast and never let up as they nearly led from wire-to-wire. The home squad hit four of their first five attempts from behind the arc as part of a 16-3 run that pushed the advantage to double-digits, 21-9.
Harris and Bowie led the onslaught from downtown as the pair helped UTSA connect 10 times in the first 20 minutes.
After Bowie’s 3-pointer gave UTSA its 12-point lead, Southern Miss scored the next six points to cut the deficit in half. But Harris drained back-to-back triples, the second in transition after a missed Golden Eagles shot, to regain a 27-15 cushion.
Each time Southern Miss threatened to close the gap, the Roadrunners responded with a basket.
Jackson and Robert Thomas III hit a pair of 3-pointers to make the deficit eight points, 36-28, but Bowie canned back-to-back triples of his own to help the Roadrunners to a 42-31 halftime lead and the advantage would not dip below 10 points the rest of the day.
Wilson helped UTSA start the second half the same way that it started the first, with a 3-pointer, and Lucas O’Brien hit a shot inside to quickly push the cushion to 16, 47-31.
The Roadrunners turned up the defense over the final period and held Southern Miss to just 23.3 percent shooting. The home squad slowly began to pull away and three free throws from Bowie capped a 10-2 spurt for a 63-43 lead.
Minutes later, Bowie started a quick 9-1 burst with a 3-pointer. The run was capped by a pair of free throws from Austin Karrer which gave the home squad its largest advantage of the day, 74-49.
With less than a minute to play, UTSA head coach Brooks Thompson called a quick timeout to sub out Bowie, who left the floor for the final time to a standing ovation from the crowd and the Roadrunners finished off the 19-point triumph seconds later.
UTSA will be back in action at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 25, when it takes to the road for a matchup at Charlotte (10-16, 6-7 C-USA).