SAN ANTONIO — Jeff Beverly tied a season high with 22 points and Lucas O'Brien neared a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds to help UTSA improve to a perfect 5-0 at home with a 79-75 victory against East Central on Thursday night.
Beverly went 8-of-14 from the floor, including a 3-pointer, to go along with five free throws and five rebounds to lead the five players in double figures for the Roadrunners (5-8), who already have equaled last season's win total before the start of Conference USA play.
Nick Billingsley finished with 16 points, while reigning C-USA Freshman of the Week Byron Frohnen chipped in with 12 points. O'Brien and Gino Littles each contributed 10 points, as UTSA shot 48.3 percent and held a 45-33 edge on the glass.
Meanwhile, Braxton Reeves paced the Tigers (6-4) with 17 points, but the reigning USBWA National Player of the Week was limited to 5-of-21 shooting and just 3-of-16 from behind the arc.
The Roadrunners shot a blistering 58.1 percent in the first half and shared the ball well as they recorded 16 assists on their 18 baskets.
The home squad scored the first seven points of the game, including five from Littles, and UTSA broke a 9-9 tie with an 11-2 run to grab a lead that it would never relinquish. Beverly started the spurt with a trey and Billingsley drained back-to-back triples before O'Brien scored inside following a Mitar Stanojevic steal.
The Tigers kept the deficit to less than 10 points and got within 33-29 with just less than five minutes to play in the half. However, UTSA rattled off eight straight points to push the advantage to a dozen.
Again it was Beverly and Billingsley that did much of the damage. Beverly started the spurt with an old-fashioned three-point play then the junior watched as Billingsley hit a jumper in the lane and drilled his third 3-pointer of the half.
Billingsley would hit one more trey in the final minutes, part of a stretch in which UTSA hit nine of its final 12 shots, and the Roadrunners took a 44-34 advantage to halftime. Eight of the nine UTSA players that saw the floor in the first half had at least one assist, led by five from Giovanni De Nicolao.
The hot shooting for UTSA continued early in the second half and Beverly scored seven points in the first three minutes of the period to keep a double-digit cushion for the home squad.
A layup from Frohnen with 11:21 to play gave the Roadrunners their largest lead of the night, 63-48. But East Central would catch fire and put together a 15-3 run over the next five minutes to get within 66-63 with 6:28 to go.
De Nicolao helped end the run with a 3-pointer and UTSA kept at least a two-possession lead down to the final minute. East Central got a trey of its own from Donovan Halsel with 16 seconds left to again cut the deficit to three, 78-75, but De Nicolao made a free throw with 11 seconds to go for the 79-75 final.
The Roadrunners made six free throws in the final 2:17 to help ice the game and stay unbeaten at home.
UTSA will open C-USA play when it hosts UTEP (2-9) at 3 p.m. on Sunday at the Convocation Center. The game can be seen on Spectrum Sports.
