SAN ANTONIO – UTSA men's basketball opens Conference USA play in the coming days, starting with a Thursday (Dec 28) game against Rice and a Saturday (Dec. 30) tilt against North Texas. Tipoff against both the Owls and Mean Green are slated for 7 p.m. at the Convocation Center.
Rice game overview
• UTSA opens Conference USA play with its 14th game of the 2017-18 season with a Thursday evening contest against Rice. The game will tip at 7 p.m. at the Convocation Center in San Antonio. UTSA enters the game sporting a 7-6 record, while Rice is 3-10 on the season. The contest will air on the Roadrunners Sports Network (Ticket 760 in San Antonio) with Andy Everett providing play-by-play and Tim Carter serving as analyst. The game will also be streamed across the globe on CUSA.tv.
Series history vs. Rice
• UTSA and Rice have met 11 previous times on the hardwood with the Roadrunners owning a 6-5 series advantage. The series started in 1982 (an 83-51 Rice win). After playing five times through 1986, the series was suspended and not resumed until a 78-75 Roadrunner win in 2008. The teams did not meet again until UTSA joined Conference USA starting with the 2013-14 season.
North Texas game overview
• UTSA continues Conference USA play with a Saturday evening contest against North Texas. The game will tip at 7 p.m. at the Convocation Center in San Antonio. Both UTSA and North Texas closed the non-conference season with 7-6 records. The contest will air on the Roadrunners Sports Network (Ticket 760 in San Antonio) with Andy Everett providing play-by-play and Tim Carter serving as analyst. The game will be televised live on KCWX-TV in San Antonio with Mike Lefko (play-by-play) and Chuck Miketinac (analyst) on the call.
KCWX-TV can be found on the following channels:
| Spectrum | 4 | 1215 HD |
| AT&T U-Verse | 2 | 1002 HD |
| Grande | 2 | 802 HD |
| DirectTV | 2 |
| Dish Network | 2 |
Series history vs. North Texas
• UTSA and North Texas have met 23 times on the basketball court with the Mean Green owning a 13-10 series advantage. The series started in 1982 and was played 18 times before being suspended after the 1996 season. The programs finally resumed the series when both joined Conference USA. UTSA is 6-6 all-time against North Texas at the Convocation Center.
Roadrunners have a stranglehold on weekly C-USA freshman honor
• UTSA freshmen Keaton Wallace and Jhivvan Jackson have combined to win five the Conference USA's Freshman of the Week honors through the season's initial seven weeks.
• Wallace, who picked up his second consecutive honor on Monday, Dec. 11, has been bestowed the honor three times (Nov. 13, Dec. 4, Dec. 11), while Jackson earned the weekly honor on Nov. 20 and most recently on Dec. 26.
• Head coach Steve Henson has now coached nine C-USA Freshman of the Week award winners – the five this season along with Byron Frohnen's three last season and Giovanni De Nicolao's one.
• UTSA had never produced a C-USA Freshman of the Week honoree prior to Henson's arrival.
26 at Nebraska nets Jackson second C-USA Frosh Honor
• For the second time this season UTSA's Jhivvan Jackson was named the Conference USA Freshman of the Week, for the week ending Dec. 24, the league office announced Tuesday.
• The Bayamón, Puerto Rico, native poured in a game-high 26 points as UTSA scored 94 points at Nebraska on Dec. 20. The Roadrunners' point total is the most surrendered by the Cornhuskers this season and the third most by a team at Pinnacle Bank Arena since the facility opened in 2012. Jackson went 9 of 20 from the floor, including five of UTSA's facility-record 15 3-pointers, and 3 of 3 at the free-throw line. He also totaled two assists and three rebounds in 27 minutes off the bench.
• Jackson scored 15 first-half points and 11 in the second half with four of his nine field goals tying the game. He sparked a 10-0 run that leveled the game at 70 with a three from the left wing, then scored eight points during a 10-5 UTSA run, including a transition 3-pointer that tied the game at 86 with 4:23 to play.
C-USA's top Scoring freshmen duo
• UTSA's freshmen duo of Jhivvan Jackson and Keaton Wallace easily compose the top scoring freshman duo in Conference USA. Jackson leads the Roadrunners at 17.0 points per game, while Wallace averages 14.6. The pair are each among the top 15 scorers in C-USA with Jackson ranking seventh and Wallace 14th. The Roadrunners are the only freshmen among the top-15 scorers in C-USA and two of the three (WKU's Taveion Hollingsworth - 13.8 ppg - is 20th) among the top-20.
Deon Lyle's Emergence
• After struggling to a 4.8 points per game average through the season's first four contests, junior Deon Lyle is averaging 11.9 points over the Roadrunners' last nine games.
• During the nine-game stretch, Lyle is shooting 52.9 percent (37 of 70) from the field, including an even 51.1 percent (24 of 47) from three.
• The Cloud County Community College transfer has totaled eight double-digit scoring games off the bench, including at least 10 points in each of the last seven, and a season-high 16 points against Ottawa and at Oklahoma.
UTSA locks up winning non-conference record
• UTSA has secured a winning non-conference record with its 7-6 mark. The Roadrunners last had a winning non-conference record in 2011-12 as the team went 7-6 on its way to an 18-14 overall mark.
Opening Conference USA play
• UTSA is 2-2 in Conference USA openers since joining the league for the 2013-14 season. Last year the Roadrunners defeated UTEP 67-55 to kick off conference play on Jan. 1, 2017.
• UTSA is 23-47 during C-USA regular-season play and have not posted a winning conference record. The 2014-15 and 2016-17 squads' 8-10 C-USA records are the best marks by Roadrunner teams since joining C-USA.
Up Next
• The Roadrunners take to the road for C-USA contests at LA Tech (Thursday, Jan. 4) and Southern Miss (Saturday, Jan. 6).