SAN ANTONIO — UTSA will open a four-game road swing beginning on Thursday night when the Roadrunners take on one of the top teams in the league in Middle Tennessee at 6:30 p.m. at the Murphy Center. The pivotal matchup will air on ESPN3.
Middle Tennessee (12-8, 7-2 C-USA) currently is in a three-way tie with WKU and Charlotte to lead the conference, as UTSA (10-9, 6-2 C-USA) sits in the fourth with a 6-2 mark.
Well into the season now, UTSA is finding a great shooting rhythm as evidenced by the Roadrunners standings. UTSA is averaging a conference best 76.8 points per game and are outscoring opponents by a 4.9 margin. In Conference USA games, UTSA ranks in the top five in steals (3rd/9.1), free throw percentage (3rd/73.6), scoring margin (4th), rebounding offense (4th/38.0), turnover margin (5th/1.9) and field goal percentage (5th/43.2).
The Roadrunners heads into the Thursday evening's matchup looking to improve on their 5-1 streak by carrying over momentum from last Saturday's thrilling 80-77 victory over WKU.
Tesha Smith had another standout performance on the season, registering 21 points, eight rebounds and two blocks. Kasia Kiejdrowska added 20 points of her own, 15 of which came in the second quarter, as she went 3-of-3 from downtown to rally the Roadrunners into a great second half performance.
It was Loryn Goodwin who would give UTSA the extra edge in the third and fourth frames to push past the Lady Toppers. Goodwin, the reigning C-USA Player of the Week, registered her third double-double (17 points, 10 assists) on the year and shot 60 percent from the field, including a go-ahead jumper with seconds to go in the game.
The junior from Cypress not only leads the squad in scoring (18.3), assists (4.3) and steals (3.1), but ranks third, eighth and second in the conference in those categories, respectively. She also cracks the top-ten list in defensive rebounds (7th/4.8).
Alex Johnson sits one rank above Goodwin in league standings, registering 19.9 points a night. Johnson has recorded 20-plus in four straight games and seven of the last eight. Senior Ty Petty will also be one for the Roadrunners to keep a handle on as she dropped 26 points on Louisiana Tech in their last victory.
Middle Tennessee ranks fourth in field goal percentage (43.3) and second in three-point percentage (35.3). The Lady Raiders also own the second-place slot in blocked shots with 5.5 per game (110 total).
Both teams have met three times in program history with Middle Tennessee earning the win each of those times.
