CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Jhivvan Jackson registered his seventh straight 20-point game with 22 and UTSA forced 23 turnovers in a 64-50 road victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Thursday night at the American Bank Center.
Jackson's 22 were buoyed by four 3-pointers, as the sophomore guard topped 20 points for the seventh straight game in leading the Roadrunners (5-7) in scoring for the sixth time in his ninth game of the year. The Bayamon, Puerto Rico, native also pulled down a career-high eight rebounds to go along with a pair of steals in 36 minutes.
Byron Frohnen joined Jackson in double figures with 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and the junior from Las Vegas added seven boards.
The Islanders' 23 turnovers marked a season high by an opponent and the most since UTSA forced 25 against A&M-Corpus Christi last season. The Roadrunners also limited the home side to 28.8-percent shooting, including a 4-for-22 (18.2 percent) effort from behind the 3-point line.
UTSA built a 30-15 halftime lead after forcing 17 turnovers and holding the Islanders (5-6) to just 3-for-19 (15.8 percent) shooting from the floor, including a field-goal drought over the final 7:40 of the half.
Jackson knocked down a pair of threes and Keaton Wallace — who finished with eight points, four assists, four rebounds and a pair of thefts — added a trey of his own from downtown to help stake UTSA to a 17-10 lead through the first eight minutes.
The Islanders cut the deficit to six after an Elijah Schmidt free throw made it 21-15 at the 4:43 mark, but UTSA answered with a 9-0 run to close the half.
Jackson pushed the lead into double digits on a short jumper with 3:30 left to play in the half. Wallace then closed out the first 20 minutes with a long 3-pointer and a short jumper to give the visitors a 15-point advantage at the break.
A&M-Corpus Christi cut the deficit to 32-23 less than three minutes into the second half with an 8-2 spurt. The Islanders pulled to within seven after a pair of free throws by Myles Smith made it 34-27, but UTSA answered with two free throws by Adokiye Iyaye and a trey from the left corner by Jackson.
The Islanders' Jashawn Talton drained a jumper from the free-throw line to make it 39-32, but the Roadrunners responded again with six unanswered points to take a 13-point advantage at the midway point of the half.
A little more than two minutes later, Jackson connected from long distance for the fourth time to extend the lead to 16 at 52-36.
A&M-Corpus Christi would get no closer than 11 down the stretch, as UTSA led wire-to-wire to secure its fifth win in the last seven contests and even the all-time series with the Islanders at 12-12.
Kareem South led A&M-Corpus Christi with 23 points and nine rebounds, while Schmidt pulled down a game-best 10 boards.
The Roadrunners will return to action against Southeastern Oklahoma State (7-2) next Saturday, Dec. 29. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. at the Convocation Center.
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