SAN ANTONIO – UTSA men's basketball plays its final two regular season this week, traveling to Lone Star State rivals North Texas and Houston. The Roadrunners square off against North Texas on Thursday at 7 p.m. and Rice on Saturday at 7 p.m.
North Texas Game overview
• UTSA commences its regular season-ending road trip on Thursday at North Texas. The contest will tip at 7 p.m. and air on the Roadrunners Sports Network (Ticket 760) with Andy Everett providing play-by-play. The game will also be web streamed on CUSA.tv with Dave Barnett (play-by-play) and Hank Dickenson (analyst) on the call.
Series history vs. North Texas
• UTSA and North Texas have met 24 times on the basketball court with the Mean Green owning a 14-10 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 4-6 all-time against North Texas at The Super Pit. North Texas won this season's first meeting by a 72-71 final as A.J. Lawson hit the what proved to be game-winner with 1:02 to play.
Rice Game overview
• UTSA concludes the 2017-18 regular season on Saturday evening at Rice. The game will tip at 7 p.m. from Tudor Fieldhouse in Houston. The contest will air on the Roadrunners Sports Network (Ticket 760 in San Antonio) with Andy Everett providing play-by-play. The game will also be broadcast nationally via the WatchESPN platform.
Series history vs. Rice
• UTSA and Rice have met 12 previous times on the hardwood with the Roadrunners owning a 7-5 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. UTSA won this season's first meeting by a 79-66 margin in both team's C-USA opener on Dec. 28 in San Antonio. Jhivvan Jackson scored 20 points and Deon Lyle added 12 to lead the Roadrunners.
Gritty win against LA Tech
• After losing leading scorer Jhivvan Jackson to injury just 4:29 into the game against LA Tech, the Roadrunners found a way to grind out a close game against the Bulldogs. UTSA trailed by as many as six in the first half, by two at the break and by four five minutes into the second half. Deon Lyle erased the four-point deficit with threes on back-to-back possessions for a 46-44 lead at the under-12 timeout. LA Tech later tied the game at 53, but four Giovanni De Nicolao free throws and an inside score by Byron Frohnen gave the Roadrunners a two-possession cushion. An Exavian Christon three with 1:56 to play pulled LA Tech within three, but UTSA would outscore the visitors 8-1 over remainder of the contest with Kendell Ramlal providing the 74-64 final with a fast break dunk in the final 15 seconds.
Deon Lyle's threes
• Deon Lyle co-leads the Roadrunners with 77 3-pointers this season, despite averaging only 17.7 minutes per game off the bench. His 45.0 percentage (77 of 171) from deep ranks tops among Conference USA long-range bombers who average at least 2.5 made triples per game.
• The junior has made at least three 3-pointers in 13 games, including a UTSA season-high seven at Southern Miss (Jan. 6), and has tallied 23 games with multiple deep makes.
Benchmark win
• UTSA's 64-56 victory over Southern Miss on Feb. 22 secured the Roadrunners first winning regular season since the 2011-12 squad posted an 18-13 record. With two games to play and 17 wins in the books, the Roadrunners have the potential to win 19 regular season games for the fist time since 2009-10.
Conference win number 10
• UTSA stands at 10-6 in Conference USA play with two games remaining. The Roadrunners' 10 league wins are the program standard since joining Conference USA prior to the 2013-14 season.
• UTSA last won 10 conference games in 2011-12, posting a 10-6 mark in its final season in the Southland Conference.
• The last Roadrunner team to claim 11 conference victories was the 2003-04 squad that went 11-5 in the Southland and went on to win the Southland Conference Tournament Championship and face No. 1 seed Stanford in the first round of the 2004 NCAA Tournament West Regional.
Jockeying for seeding position
• UTSA, which was selected ninth in the Conference USA preseason poll, currently sits fifth in the league standings. [The top four teams earn a first-round bye in the 2018 Conference USA Championship.]
• UTSA is currently one game back of Marshall for fourth. The Roadrunners play the current seventh-place (North Texas) and 13th-place (Rice) teams to close the season, while Marshall plays the current sixth-place (UAB) and first-place (Middle Tennessee) teams. Both UTSA's and Marshall's final two games are on the road.
• The Roadrunners are two full games up on UAB and own the head-to-head tiebreaker. Therefore, UTSA will play from no lower than the fifth seed in the Conference USA Championship.
Up Next
• The Roadrunners turn their attention to the 2018 Conference USA Championships contested at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas. UTSA will either be the No. 5 or No. 5 seed in the tournament depending on the outcome of this week's games.