SAN ANTONIO – Nick Allen scored a career-high 18 points and totaled UTSA's first double-double of the season with 11 rebounds, while Deon Lyle tallied 14 points and six boards as the junior duo lead the Roadrunners to a 64-56 home win over Southern Miss Thursday evening.
The win moves UTSA to 16-12 on the season and locks up the Roadrunners first winning regular season since the 2011-12 season. Moreover, the Roadrunners moved to 9-6 in Conference USA action, which marks the most wins since the program joined the league in 2013-14.
In addition to Allen and Lyle, Jhivvan Jackson reached double-figures for the 17th consecutive game, finishing with 10 points. Keaton Wallace was the Roadrunners' top assist man with four.
Southern Miss (13-16, 6-10 C-USA) was led by Tyree Griffin's 17 points and Cortez Edwards' 12. Dominic Magee grabbed 11 Golden Eagle boards, including 10 off the defensive glass.
UTSA, which did not make a field goal over the final 6:58, shot 37 percent (22 of 60) overall and 33 percent (9 of 27) from deep. Southern Miss went 37 percent (18 of 52) from the field and 27 percent (6 of 22) from beyond the arc. UTSA controlled the boards 48-34 and outscored the visitors 24-9 off the bench.
UTSA's late first half shooting woes continued through the first eight minutes of the second period as the Roadrunners made only three of 14 attempts. However, Southern Miss wasn't much better, shooting 4 of 11, which allowed UTSA to hold a 45-39 lead at the under-12 media timeout.
Back-to-back buckets by Edwards cut the UTSA advantage to 45-43 with 10:46 to go. However, UTSA responded with an 11-0 over the next four minutes to re-establish a double-digit lead at 56-43. Allen sparked the scoring spurt with a thunderous dunk, Wallace made an elbow jumper and a three, George Willborn III scored inside and Allen closed the run with a layup high off the glass.
Southern Miss got no closer than six the rest of the way as the teams combined for 13 free throws, but only one field goal over the final seven-plus minutes as UTSA held on to win its 10th home game of the season.
Allen scored 12 of UTSA's first 14 points in the opening 4:31 to give the Roadrunners a double-digit lead at 14-3 and force a Southern Miss timeout. UTSA scored 14 of the game's next 17 points to take a 22-point lead at 28-6 with another Allen score inside. Moments later, Lyle forced USM's third timeout of the half with a three from the left corner, which put the Roadrunner ahead 31-9 at the 8:19 mark.
USM responded out of the timeout outscoring the Roadrunners 15-5 over the next four minutes to cut the UTSA lead to 36-34 with 2:16 to go before the half. A Willborn III free throw would be the only point UTSA mustered over the final stages of the period as the Golden Eagles Griffin and Eddie Davis III each scored inside to cut the Roadrunners halftime lead to 37-28.
UTSA, which made eight of its first 14 attempts, closed the opening 20 minutes shooting 40 percent from the field and holding a plus-seven rebounding margin. USM shot 37 percent for the half after making just one of its first 12 shots.
Up next
UTSA concludes its regular season home slate with a 7 p.m. tipoff on Saturday against LA Tech live on KCWX-TV. The game will be Senior Night for Kyle Massie, Austin Karrer, Kendell Ramlal and James Ringholt.