SAN ANTONIO – UTSA women's basketball begins its march toward the 2018 Conference USA championship at 1:30 p.m. against seventh-seeded Florida Atlantic on Wednesday, March 7 in Frisco, Texas at the Ford Center at The Star.
The winner of FAU (13-14, 7-9 C-USA) versus UTSA (8-20, 6-10 C-USA) will face the No. 2 seed WKU on Thursday in the second round.
The first round games of the C-USA Tournament will be streamed live on Facebook and will air on goUTSA.com with Stu Paul providing play-by-play.
Inside the series: UTSA leads 4-3
UTSA and FAU have met seven previous times on the basketball court since the 2013-2014 season, when the Roadrunners joined Conference USA. UTSA paces the all-time series, 4-3, including three wins in the Convocation Center. In 2017, the Roadrunners swept the Owls in a pair of games, with a road 70-61 victory on Jan. 14 and a 69-55 triumph at home on Feb. 23. This season, he Owls topped UTSA, 99-65, on January 25 in San Antonio. FAU had three players score 20-or-more points in that game with Ra'Kyra Gabriel recording 27, Danneal Ford had 25 and Sasha Cedeno scored 22. Senior Crystal Chidomere led the Roadrunners with 20 points in the setback, while fellow classmate Carlie Heineman finished with 11
Getting to know FAU
The Owls come into Wednesday's game following an 83-69 loss to Charlotte. The setback snapped a three-game winning streak that saw FAU defeat Southern Miss, FIU and Marshall. The Owls are led by Sasha Cedeno's 17.2 points and 8.0 rebounds per game (she is also tops with 21 blocks and 34 steals), while Danneal Ford paces the team with 115 assists. Cedeno's 48 3-pointers are also a team-high. As a team, Florida Atlantic is the league's leader in rebounding offense (42.8), but is next to last in rebounding defense (41.1).
Last time out
UTSA battled to a 35-33-halftime lead, but Conference USA Regular Season Champion UAB, rode the hot hands of Deanna Kuzmanic and Rachel Childress to rally past the Roadrunners, 74-66, at the Convocation Center Saturday afternoon.
Kuzmanic tallied eight of her game-high 20 points in the third quarter to help the Blazers (24-5, 13-3 C-USA) take their first lead of the game. The loss snaps a three-game winning streak for UTSA (8-20, 6-10 C-USA).
Sophomore Marie Benson registered 19 points to pace the Roadrunners while senior Crystal Chidomere scored 18 points and Alexus Dukes added 10
Postseason Action
In the program's 36th year, UTSA has gone 13-16 in conference tournaments. In the program's five-year history in Conference USA, the Roadrunners have gone 1-4 with the lone victory coming back in the 2013-14 season when UTSA defeated Tulsa 90-89 but lost to Old Dominion 79-74 to end the season.
Moving up the charts
Senior Carlie Heineman has already made her way into the top-10 career 3-point field goals made. The guard started the season in fifth place with 126 triples and has moved into third with 64 triples this season. Overall, she has 190 career-three pointers and is only 10 away from tying the all-time program record of 200.
3-Point Field Goals Made
1. Amber Greg (07-11) 200 triples / 118 games
2. Terrie Davis (04-08) 195 triples / 118 games
3. Carlie Heineman (14-Present) 190 triples / 105 games
3-for-3
For a third consecutive year, senior Carlie Heineman paces the Roadrunners in 3-pointers made (64– seventh in C-USA) and 3-pointers attempted (190). Helping her cause was burying six triples against North Dakota on Nov. 25 in the UTSA Thanksgiving Classic, six against Old Dominion (1/13/18), North Texas (2/2/18) and Marshall (2/8/18) this season. As a junior Heineman led UTSA with 69 3-pointers last season. In her sophomore campaign, she made a squad-best 35, while she tallied 22 as a freshman, which was good for fourth among the team.
Neutral Territory
UTSA is 1-0 in neutral site games under Holt. Earlier this season the Roadrunners defeated Mississippi Valley State in the opening contest of the UTRGV Battle on the Border. In the win, senior Crystal Chidomere guided a quartet of Roadrunners into double figures with her first double-double of the season (15 points/13 rebounds). Overall, sophomore Tija Hawkins led the Roadrunners with 16 points, followed by Chidomere and senior Carlie Heineman with 15 points apiece while freshman Tasharian Robinson added 10.
Blocks of Crystal
Senior Crystal Chidomere has been the Roadrunners' most consistent shot blocker this season, leading the team with 29 swats on the year. That mark is six blocks away from cracking the top-10 for single-season blocks in UTSA program history. She is currently six away from former Roadrunner Amanda Foster (07-08) with 35. Overall, the veteran owns 67 career blocks, which is good for ninth on the all-time career list.
1K Club Newest Member
Senior Crystal Chidomere became the Roadrunners' 15th member of the 1,000-point club with 11 points against Rice on Feb. 25. Starting the season in 31st place on the all-time scoring list, Chidomere currently has 1,020 career points to rank 15th. She currently needs 32 points to move into 14th on the all-time scoring list.
UTSA All-Time Scoring List
13. Kim Maxwell (1981-84) 1,081 pts / 81 games
14. Terrie Davis (2004-08) 1,052 pts / 118 games
15. Crystal Chidomere (2014-Present) 1,020 pts / 115 games
16. Whitney York (2007- 13) 931 pts / 96 games
Call in the reinforcements
UTSA has gotten effective play off of its bench as the Roadrunners outscored opponents 470-433 in this category. Freshman Karrington Donald has been the Roadrunners' top threat off the bench with 107 points this season.
Rookie of the Week
UTSA's Karrington Donald was named the Conference USA Freshman of the week, for the week ending Feb.25.Donald, a native of Humble, Texas, came off the bench to lead the Roadrunners in their 62-58 win over Rice on Sunday at the Convocation Center. The Freshman recorded a career-tying and a team-high 15 points, registering 6-of-7 from the field and three of UTSA's six 3-pointers in the game.
This is Donald's first C-USA weekly award and the first UTSA weekly award under first-year head coach Kristen Holt.
Benson on the boards
• Sophomore forward Marie Benson leads UTSA and ranks third among league opponents with an average of 9.3 rebounds per game.
• Benson has totaled 374 career rebounds with 252 coming on the defensive end.
• The Texas native has led the Roadrunners on the glass in 12 games, including a season-high 16 rebounds against Texas A&M Commerce (12/29/17).
• Benson's 374 rebounds in 42 career games ranks 30th on the UTSA career list. She needs only 15 more to reach the top 25 and 37 to crack the top 20.
Breaking out
Last year, sophomore Tija Hawkins averaged just five minutes per game and had just 20 career points entering the 2017-18 season. This year the forward has started 16 of 28 games and is fourth on the team with 24.8 minutes per game. The Killeen native is also third on the team with 147 rebounds and 16 blocks, while being fourth on the squad with 204 points this year.
New Faces
The Roadrunners have four newcomers this year in freshmen Barbara Benson, Karrington Donald, Tasharian Robinson and junior-transfer Evelyn Omemmah. Pacing the newcomers are Donald and Robinson. The guards have combined for over 810 minutes on the court this season. Touching the court in 27 of UTSA's 28 games this season, Donald currently averages 4.0 points and 1.3 rebounds per game. She is also second on the squad with 19 3-pointers. Playing in 18 games with 16 starts, Robinson averages 4.3 points and 2.7 rebounds per game, while having added 37 assists and 15 steals on the season.
Plenty of playing time to go around
The Roadrunners have only 13 active players this year, meaning that there's going to be plenty of playing time to go around. Head Coach Kristen Holt has done a good job of spreading the minutes around with seven different Roadrunners (Carlie Heineman – 33.6/Crystal Chidomere -27.0/Marie Benson -26.8/Tija Hawkins -24.8/ Tasharian Robinson – 24.2/Kourtney Kekec – 20.5/Billie Marlow – 16.0) logging at least 16 minutes per contest.
2018 C-USA Tournament hosted at The Star
UTSA won't have to travel far for the 2018 Conference USA Tournament that will be held in Frisco at the Ford Center at the Star, practice facility of the Dallas Cowboys. The championship tournament is scheduled for March 7-10 with all 22 games - 11 men's and 11 women's games at the Star.
Game format
For the third straight season, NCAA women's basketball games will be played in four 10-minute quarters. Teams reach the bonus and shoot two free throws on the fifth team foul in each quarter. In the four-quarter format, team fouls reset to zero at the start of each quarter. Teams have four timeouts (three 30s, one 60), three which carry over to the second half. They will be able to advance the ball to the frontcourt after a timeout with less than 59.9 seconds in 4Q. There are seven media timeouts (four under five minutes in quarter/first called), two intermission media timeouts (after first and third quarters) and the first team-called timeout during the second half. Bands or amplified music may play during any dead ball.
Connect on social media
Fans are encouraged to connect with the Roadrunners on Facebook (UTSA Women's Basketball), Instagram (@UTSAWBBALL) and Twitter (@UTSAWBB). They are also encouraged to use #RunningWithExcellence and #BirdsUp in posts.
