SAN ANTONIO — Keaton Wallace poured in 29 points, including the game-winning 3-pointer with 15 seconds left, and UTSA rallied from an 18-point, second-half deficit for a 74-73 victory over Old Dominion on Saturday afternoon at the Convocation Center.
The Roadrunners ran their record to 12-9 overall and 6-2 in Conference USA to claim a share of first place in the league standings. UTSA, which led for only 30 seconds in the contest, also extended its home winning streak to eight games.
"We were as close to being dead in the water as you can be but just kind of hung in, obviously, had some things fall our way and made a few plays. Our guys believed," UTSA Coach Steve Henson, who improved to 31-10 at The Convo, said. "They've done it before. We had a crazy one a couple years ago. But man, that was pretty awesome."
The Monarchs (16-6, 6-3) led 67-49 with 4:43 to play when Ahmad Caver knocked down a jumper in the paint, but the lead would evaporate in thrilling fashion.
ODU: 99.9% chance to win@UTSAMBB: So you're telling me there's a chance pic.twitter.com/Nqbe53xDqu
— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) January 27, 2019
Nick Allen drained a 3-pointer and Jhivvan Jackson hit from beyond the arc on back-to-back possessions to pull UTSA to within 69-61 with 1:44 remaining. Jackson then was fouled and converted a pair of free throws to make it a six-point contest with 1:27 on the clock.
Forced to foul, the Roadrunners sent Caver to the line, where he made both to push the ODU lead back to three possessions.
Wallace dialed up a long trey with 1:11 to cut the deficit to 71-66.
UTSA then fouled Caver again, and he made 1-of-2 for a six-point advantage with 49.2 showing on the clock.
Wallace connected again from long distance, this time on the right wing while attempting to draw a foul with a little less than 40 seconds to play.
B.J. Stith was quickly fouled and made one of his two attempts at the line for a 73-69 margin.
Jackson converted an acrobatic layup under the basket with 32 seconds remaining to make it a two-point contest
UTSA then chose not to foul and it paid off, as the full-court press forced an errant Monarchs pass that was stolen by Bryon Frohnen. Wallace then dribbled to the right corner after faking a handoff pass and dropped in his third three in 60 seconds to give the Roadrunners their first lead since the 12:41 mark of the first half.
ODU had three looks at a game-winning basket but could not get one to fall as time expired to complete the comeback.
"If you walked out of here with four minutes to go you would have said that we got whooped. And we got whooped for 16 minutes in the second half," Henson said. "The first half we weren't very comfortable but we weathered it. We had some guys in foul trouble but when we got to halftime and I felt good at that point because I knew we were going to play better. During one of those timeouts in the second half I said we were going to have a spurt at some point, I didn't anticipate it being quite like that at the very end. They missed a few free throws, our guys just kept fighting. They ran out of timeouts and made a few plays and they kept believing.
"I've never heard The Convo that loud, ever, and it's not even close."
Wallace drained nine 3-pointers for the third time this season, as the sophomore from Dallas registered his ninth 20-point outing of the season and 14th of his career.
"Keaton kept us in it in the first half by making shots and then closed it up there for us," Henson said about Wallace's six first-half treys.
Jackson also topped the 20-point threshold for the 14th time in his last 16 contests with 21 points and the sophomore from Puerto Rico also dished out five assists.
"We just hung in there," Wallace said. "Coach kept staying positive with us. He gave us the right tools to execute. We just fought those last few minutes."
Allen added 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting, including three from downtown.
Stith led the Monarchs with 23 points and 12 rebounds, while Caver pitched in with 20 points and 10 boards. Xavier Green added 17 points for ODU, which shot 39 percent and made just 19-of-30 (63.6 percent) at the free-throw line.
The visitors scored the game's first six points and held an 11-6 lead, but UTSA scored six unanswered, the last three on a long-distance connection from Wallace that gave the home team a one-point advantage at the 12:41 mark.
That lead lasted for a mere 15 seconds, as ODU took a 40-36 advantage into the locker room at halftime and led by double digits for much of the second half before UTSA staged its rally.
The Roadrunners shot 40.7 percent and made 16-of-31 (51.6 percent) from behind the three-point line to help overcome a 55.6-percent effort at the charity stripe, a 45-35 ODU rebounding margin and a 26-12 disadvantage in points in the paint.
"(ODU) is just so good," Henson said. "They're so physical. They're not a post you and beat you up team but they just play a physical style. I have great respect for Coach (Jeff) Jones and ODU. It is a true program, what he has established. They are going to be near the top every single year, whether they win it or not, they are going to be right there because of their culture. Big, strong, physical. They redshirt guys, they bring them up. They are hard to beat. We just found a way at the very end to get it done."
The Roadrunners will hit the road to face WKU next Thursday, Jan. 31. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. and the game will air on Stadium on Facebook and Ticket 760 AM.
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