SAN ANTONIO -- Jhivvan Jackson scored a game-high 21 points, but Ahmad Caver and B.J. Stith posted double-doubles and Old Dominion held off UTSA 65-64 in Conference USA Bonus Play action Thursday night at the Convocation Center.
Stith led three Monarchs in double figures with 16 points and the senior pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds to help ODU improve to 23-6 overall and clinched the league's regular season title.
Caver scored 13 and added 10 assists and seven boards, while Xavier Green pitch in with 14 points and ODU took advantage of a 43-29 rebounding margin — including a 15-4 edge on the offensive glass — to even the season series against the Roadrunners (15-13, 9-6).
Jackson posted his 20th 20-point game of the season and 34th of his young career to lead UTSA, while Keaton Wallace added 19 points and a team-high six boards.
In a tight contest that neither team led by more than seven points, the Monarchs grabbed a 60-57 lead after Stith hit a jumper and Jason Wade converted 1 of 2 at the free-throw line with a little more than four minutes left to play.
Wallace knocked down a 3-pointer from the right wing — his third trey of the night — with three minutes left to knot the score.
At the other end, Stith was fouled and made both free throws, then Caver drained a short jumper to put the visitors up 64-60 with less than two minutes on the clock.
UTSA missed two attempts from downtown but got the ball back with 18.5 seconds left after a shot clock violation on the Monarchs during a scramble for a loose ball.
Giovanni De Nicolao then drove hard to the left for a layup with 10.7 ticks to make it a two-pon contest.
Forced to foul, UTSA sent Green to the line with 8.6 seconds on the clock. He made the first attempt but missed the second, setting up a wild finish.
With time winding down, Jackson received a handoff pass from Wallace near the top of the key, but the ball got loose before the sophomore from Puerto Rico saw an open lane and converted a layup with 0.9 seconds showing.
However, ODU got the ball in to Stith and time ran out on the Roadrunners.
UTSA got off to a cold start, missing its first six shots from floor before Nick Allen's basket at the 16:21 mark got the home team on the board. The Roadrunners shot just 27 percent through the first eight minutes while ODU made 7 of 14 in running out to a 16-9 advantage.
Later in the opening period, Adrian Rodriguez was fouled and made both ends of a one-and-one to cap a 9-0 run and hand UTSA its first lead at 22-20 with just under five minutes left in the half.
Jackson knocked down a trey from the left wing to put UTSA up 27-22, but the Monarchs quickly answered, using a 10-4 stretch to reclaim the lead in the waning seconds of the half.
Stith had a chance to put the visitors up by three, but his jumper was no good. Jackson came down with the rebound and found De Nicolao, who calmly drained a buzzer-beater from 65 feet to give the home team a 34-32 edge at the break.
Wallace and Jackson each connected from long distance to help UTSA build a 40-35 lead early in the second half, but ODU reeled off 10 unanswered points the last three by Green from beyond the arc at the 14:40 mark.
The Monarchs opened the half by making eight of their first 12 shots in eventually pushing the lead out to seven with 12:26 left.
UTSA responded with a 7-0 run capped with an acrobatic fast-break layup by Jackson that evened the score with a little more than nine minutes remaining.
The Roadrunners will host UAB (17-12, 9-7) on Sunday, March 3. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. at the Convo and the game will air on CUSA TV and The Bull 93.3/92.5 FM.
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