SAN ANTONIO – With the 2023-24 home slate winding down quickly, the UTSA men’s basketball team (9-19, 3-12 AAC) gets another crack at a foe from earlier in the season, as Tulsa (14-13, 5-10 AAC) travels to San Antonio to face the Roadrunners for first time in program history. When the teams met in January, a hot-shooting Tulsa performance gave the Golden Hurricane a runaway win in the second half in Oklahoma. Wednesday’s game is Greek Night at the Convocation Center with a 7 p.m. tipoff, slated for broadcast on ESPN+ and on the radio on Sports Radio AM 760 The Ticket.
Men's Basketball Tickets
Single-Game Tickets
UTSA Men’s Basketball Home Schedule
Direct Link: https://bit.ly/UTSATix
Single Game Adult Reserved: $13
Single Game Military/Youth (ages 3-18)/Senior (ages 65+): $11
Students: Free Admission with UTSA ID, download tickets at goUTSA.com/studentlogin.
Greek Night at The Convo
UTSA athletics is inviting all campus Greek Life, fraternity and sorority organizations to come join the Roadrunners at the Convocation Center on Wednesday night. The highest attending organization will receive custom orange UTSA hats and house letters and signage will be prominently displayed for all houses attending. There will be special contests and plenty of interaction opportunities between the organizations and other students.
On the Air and on the Web
Wednesday’s matchup at the Convocation Center will air live on the radio with Andy Everett (play-by-play) joined by Tim Carter (analyst) on the call. The radio broadcast will appear on Sports Radio AM 760 The Ticket and, as always, will feature a 30-minute pregame and 15-minute postgame show – available online at Ticket760.com or via the free iHeartRadio app.
The live stream of the game will run on ESPN+ for subscribers. Karl Schoening (play-by-play) will be on the call with Devin Brown (analyst).
UTSA Athletics will also provide LIVE STATS from The Convo.
Last Time Out
‣ The Roadrunners got back in the win column and snapped a seven-game losing skid with a gritty defensive victory at long-time in-state rival North Texas, holding off the Mean Green to a 64-62 final.
‣ Staring down an 11-point deficit, Jordan Ivy-Curry took control of the game for UTSA in the first half, reeling off 13 straight points for UTSA to trim the difference to a single point in the final seven minutes.
‣ A two-minute scoring slump followed for the Roadrunners, who trailed 37-32 into the half.
‣ The Mean Green kept their distance from UTSA for the first 10 minutes of the second half, but again Ivy-Curry led the rally, cutting the deficit to five ahead of back-to-back Dre Fuller Jr. threes to garner the first UTSA lead at 54-53.
‣ Breaking a 60-all tie, Carlton Linguard Jr. logged a putback and Christian Tucker put away a pair of key free throws for a four-point lead in the final minute.
‣ UNT’s Rubin Jones sliced the lead with 24 seconds remaining, and Tucker uncharacteristically missed the front end of the subsequent 1-and-1. However, the Roadrunner defense rose to the occasion and Tucker got a partial block on Jason Edwards’ three-point attempt to preserve the 64-62 victory – the first win for UTSA at The Super Pit since 2015.
‣ Ivy-Curry put up 16 points in the first half to keep UTSA in it, finishing with a game-high 21 points highlighted by 5-for-8 perimeter shooting, in addition to eight rebounds, three steals and three assists. Both instrumental in the late push, Linguard went 5-for-8 for 13 points with six rebounds and three blocks, while Fuller hit 3-of-4 from beyond the arc for 12 points that sparked UTSA down the line.
‣ It was the second consecutive high-defense outing for the Roadrunners, who started last week with a nailbiter loss to league-leading and now 25th-ranked South Florida, 61-66 at home.
‣ Notching his eighth 20-point performance in 18 tries, Ivy-Curry leads UTSA’s scorers at 16.7 ppg, registering 13 double-figure performances. He’s also No. 2 on the Roadrunners’ assist chart this season at 3.28 apg and averages 5.3 rpg. The junior guard is sixth in conference scoring with 17.73 ppg against AAC opponents.
‣ Tucker is third in the conference (47th NCAA) with 5.0 assists per game. He starts the week at second in the AAC for the first time this season for total assists, having gone 15 consecutive weeks leading the conference in the stat. He’s collected 141 and ranks 40th in the NCAA, supplanted by Rice’s Max Fiedler after he doled out 10 against East Carolina.
‣ He’s got sole possession of the No. 5 spot in the UTSA single-season assist records, moving past Todd Barnes (1987-88) with two dimes at North Texas. He’s currently one back from No. 4 Devin Gibson (2007-08), but 18 behind Lloyd Williams (1999-2000) in the third spot.
‣ Tucker continues his AAC leadership at the line for his seventh week topping the AAC in free throw percentage, now at 87.5 percent (112-128), coming in at 41st nationally.
‣ The 35 rebounds UTSA registered at UNT snapped a three-game streak over 40 boards a game. The Roadrunners remain the top rebounding team in The American with a 40.14 rpg average, ranking 19th in the NCAA.
‣ UTSA got the win in a close one on Saturday, but there have been 11 setbacks by single digits, including eight single-digit losses in league play and six outings decided by six points or less.
‣ The Roadrunners rank fourth among AAC scoring offenses at 77.5 ppg, knocking down a league-high 9.6 threes per outing, which ranks18th in the NCAA. Powered by Ivy-Curry’s efforts, UTSA ranks seventh in the nation with an AAC-high 32.00 bench points per game.
Series with Tulsa
The Roadrunners and Golden Hurricane are meeting for the eighth time in a series that has completely gone to Tulsa. UTSA is 0-7 so far, with all previous dates contested in Tulsa until this week. The first meeting was in Dec. 1994 and UTSA traveled to the latest on Jan. 17, 2024 at the Reynolds Center for their first meeting as AAC opponents.
In the last outing between these teams, a first-half shootout got away from the Roadrunners after the shots stopped falling. UTSA trailed Tulsa 53-48 at the break, but the Golden Hurricane hit five of their first six shots of the second half while UTSA stumbled – outscoring the Roadrunners 21-4 across the first six minutes of the new period. Tulsa led by as many as 32 and collected the 107-78 win, paced by PJ Haggerty with a 9-for-12 performance for 25 points – topping a 59-percent team shooting performance on the night. Against the Golden Hurricane, Ivy-Curry had 19 points and seven rebounds, while Tucker had 12 points with eight assists and Trey Edmonds scored 10 points with six boards.
Scouting Tulsa
‣ Led by second-year head coach Eric Konkol, the Golden Hurricane used their win over UTSA to jumpstart their conference slate, quickly capturing wins in three of the final four games of January. Tulsa sits at 14-13 with a 5-10 record in conference play – coming to San Antonio fresh off a stunning 69-67 victory at home over Charlotte.
‣ Everybody in the conference should be well aware of redshirt freshman PJ Haggerty – the leading candidate for AAC Freshman of the Year after winning the weekly award 12 times this season. Taking lead on a Tulsa squad that loves to run, Haggerty is second in the AAC at 20.2 ppg (25th NCAA), hitting 48.2 percent from the field and making a team-high 99 assists (3.6 apg) on the year.
‣ Former LA Tech star guard Cobe Williams will face the Roadrunners for the eighth time in his career, scoring 18 with eight rebounds in the last go-around. Williams is second on the team in scoring at 12.7 ppg with 98 assists (3.63 apg), while pacing the team with 46 three-pointers.
‣ Jared Garcia tops the team with 5.9 rpg and a team-best 37 blocks, while Haggerty chips in a team second-most 5.3 rpg.
‣ The Golden Hurricane average 75.0 ppg on 43.8 percent shooting as a team. Tulsa leads the AAC with 14.63 fast break ppg. The Golden Hurricane average 35.48 rpg and give up a league-high 13.4 turnovers per game – while also forcing an AAC second-best 13.44 opponent turnovers.
Up Next
Back to the Dallas Metroplex for the weekend, as UTSA travels to face AAC fifth-place SMU on Saturday afternoon at Moody Coliseum. After the Mustangs, UTSA will have seven days out of action before hosting Temple in a home rematch for Senior Day on March 10.
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