SAN ANTONIO – The UTSA men's basketball team will kick off a three-game homestand to conclude the regular-season, hosting 20-win UAB on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Convocation Center. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+, with Lincoln Rose (play-by-play) and LaDarrin McLane (analyst) on the call, and on Ticket 760 AM, with Andy Everett (play-by-play) and Tim Carter (analyst) voicing the action. The game is sponsored by HEB.
The Roadrunners have three consecutive home games over a two-week stretch to wrap up the regular-season schedule, starting with clash against UAB, the second-place team in the rugged C-USA West Division. The Roadrunners will then host first-place North Texas (20-4, 13-1 C-USA), winners of 12 straight games and unbeaten on the road, before wrapping up the regular season vs. Rice (14-12, 6-8 C-USA) on March 5. UTSA will face Southern Miss (6-21, 1-13 C-USA) – a team it split the home-and-home series with in 2021-22 – in the first round of the C-USA Championships on Tuesday, March 8 in Frisco, Texas.
UTSA (9-19, 2-13 Conference USA) is coming off a split of its final road series of the year, posting an overtime winner at Southern Miss on Thursday before falling at 19-win Louisiana Tech on Saturday in Ruston.
The Roadrunners battled the Eagles on Thursday in a back-and-forth affair that saw the majority of the game played as a one-possession contest and saw USM even the game at the buzzer to force overtime. UTSA then exploded, outscoring Southern Miss 22-3 in overtime, including an 8-of-8 performance from the floor and a 12-0 run to open the extra period. UTSA got 26 points and 10 rebounds from Dhieu Deing, a career-best 21 points from Isaiah Addo-Ankrah, and the first points-assists double-double from a Roadrunner since 2018-19 from Erik Czumbel, with career highs in points (16) and assists (11). Saturday, Louisiana Tech raced out to an early lead on the strength of a hot-shooting night from deep, posting a 24-point win despite the eighth double-double of the year from Jacob Germany.
The Roadrunners have averaged 68 points, 39.4 rebounds, 11.5 assists, 5.7 steals and 2.7 blocks per game as a team, shooting 39.1 percent from the field and 28.9 percent from 3-point range. Opponents are scoring 73.1 points per game, shooting 45.7 percent from the field and 36.2 percent from deep.
Junior center Jacob Germany leads the team with 14.8 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, ranking fourth in the league with eight double-doubles, shooting 48.3 percent from the field and owning 24 blocks. Junior guard Dhieu Deing averages 14.3 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. Senior guard Darius McNeill chips in 6.5 points and 2.5 rebounds per game. Isaiah Addo-Ankrah has connected on 40 percent of his 3-pointers and averages 5.0 points per game.
UAB (20-7, 10-4 C-USA) is coming off a two-game split over the weekend which included a win over Rice in Birmingham, before falling vs. North Texas in a battle for first place in the C-USA West Division, with UNT sinking a last second 3-pointer to erase a two-point UAB lead and secure its 12th straight win. The Blazers are under the direction of former Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy, a 1991 graduate of UAB. UAB won the offseason in the transfer portal and own transfers from South Alabama, ULM, South Florida, Ole Miss, Tulane, Auburn, Georgia Southern, LSU and Clemson.
Jordan Walker – a Tulane transfer and the favorite for C-USA Player of the Year honors – leads the team with 19.2 points and 2.5 rebounds per game, owning 5.0 assists per game. Georgia Southern transfer Quan Jackson averages 11.9 points and 5.5 rebounds per game, while KJ Buffen, an Ole Miss transfer, sports 10.4 points and 7.1 rebounds per game. ULM transfer Michael Ertel sports 8.8 points per game, while Tavin Lovan adds 8.2 points and 3.1 rebounds per game. Clemson transfer Trey Jemison, a 7-foot junior, averages 6.8 points and 7.1 rebounds per game.
The Blazers average 80.5 points, 37.9 rebounds, 13.3 assists, 10.2 steals and 4.4 blocks per game as a team, shooting 46.7 percent as a team and 36.3 percent from distance. Opponents are shooting 40.9 percent from the field and 33.6 percent from 3-point range, scoring 64.9 points per game.
The Blazers lead the all-time series with the Roadrunners, 8-5, including a 4-3 mark in games played in San Antonio. UAB won the last meeting in the series, 87-59 in the league opener for the Roadrunners on Jan. 1 in Birmingham. The teams split the two games last year, with UTSA winning the finale, 96-79 on the strength of an explosive game from Jhivvan Jackson and Keaton Wallace. In the meeting on Jan. 1, UAB owned a 18-point halftime lead and finished off a 28-point win behind a 49.2 percent shooting outing that saw 10 of 21 3-pointers nailed. Jordan Walker had 19 points, while Michael Ertel chipped in 12, with KJ Bufen owning 20 points and nine rebounds. UTSA got a career-high 26 points and 10 rebounds from Jacob Germany, going 12 of 23 from the field.
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