SAN ANTONIO – Push things ahead one game for the UTSA men’s basketball team (1-0), which is making its first road trip of the year with a Tuesday-night non-conference outing at Bradley on Nov. 12. The Roadrunners’ second scheduled contest was pushed back to later in the season after a severe snowstorm in Denver impeded North Dakota’s ability to reach San Antonio on Saturday. In only the second meeting between these programs, the Roadrunners and Braves will tip off at 7 p.m., televised live on ESPN+.
On the Air and on the Web
Tuesday’s matchup at Carver Arena will air live on the radio with Andy Everett (play-by-play). 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, as Everett continues his 18th season as a UTSA basketball broadcaster.
The game will also stream live on ESPN+ for subscribers. Brian Bedo (play-by-play) and Kristoff Kendrick (color) will be on the broadcast call.
Bradley Athletics will also provide Live Stats from Carver Arena.
About the UTSA Roadrunners
Last Monday’s 44th-season opener proved to be a great game after Trinity used a near-total zone approach to keep things tight for 28 minutes. However, the Roadrunners started adding turnover-creating pressure that quickly sent the UTSA offense into a scoring frenzy. Across the final 12 minutes, UTSA broke from a 64-63 advantage and outscored the cross-town visiting Tigers 39-14 into the final buzzer. The 103-77 final put a victory stamp on first-year head coach Austin Claunch’s debut along with the new-look Roadrunners earning the sixth consecutive home opener win for the program. There were a lot of big numbers flying around for the biggest contributors. Guard Primo Spears led all scorers with 27 points on 9-of-16 shooting, including 7-for-8 at the free throw line, while also adding five assists and four steals. Supporting the high-scoring effort, forward Jaquan Scott went 7-for-10 to score a career-high 16 points, along with six rebounds. Guard Marcus Millender was 6-for-11 and 19 points with a team-high seven assists, while guard Damari Monsanto put down four from long range for 12 points. Leading on the boards, forward Jonnivius Smith grabbed 10 boards and scored nine points. UTSA finished the night with 40 points off turnovers (26 in the second half), upping their fast break scoring to 32 points. The Roadrunners also pushed the Tigers into 28 turnovers and tallied 21 steals.
UTSA’s roster features 15 newcomers, who collectively averaged 43.3 percent field goal shooting with individual averages of 7.8 ppg, 3.6 rpg and 1.4 apg in an average of only 20.4 minutes per game last season. This collective group combined for a grouped average of 85.6 points, 36.6 rebounds, 13.9 assists, 7.7 steals and 2.8 blocks per contest. The roster additions also made a cumulative 10.1 made three-pointers per game.
About the Series
This will be only the second matchup between these teams, the last coming in the Island of the Bahamas Showcase on Nov. 18, 2017, ending in a 71-69 Bradley win. All-Conference UTSA star and now the Roadrunners’ third NBA player, Keaton Wallace scored 22 to lead UTSA, while Giovanni De Nicolao scored 11, as Bradley’s JoJo McGlaston converted on a trio of free throws with :01 remaining to throw the game to the Braves.
UTSA is 6-19 all-time against Missouri Valley Schools and are 3-14 against the current MVC membership.
About the Bradley Braves
Bradley opened the season with an 88-60 win at home over Southeast Missouri, kicking off the 10th season under Brian Wardle, who has rebuilt the Braves into a sturdy competitor and one of the top opponents on the 2024-25 UTSA schedule. Reaching the NIT last season after finishing 23-12, the Braves also went 25-10 in 2022-23, appearing in the opening round of the NCAA tournament as an at-large bid. In game two, Bradley didn’t fare as well on the road, dropping a 91-74 loss at Washington State on Nov. 8.
Against SEMO, the Braves dominated the boards with a 36-27 advantage, shooting 55.6 percent while holding SEMO to 44.2 percent and hitting 43.5 percent from three against the Redhawks’ abysmal 26.1 percent from deep. Although the Braves got 37 points off their bench in the season-opening win, a balanced attack from senior guard/forward Christian Davis and sophomore forward Almar Atlason paced the starters with 15 and 13, respectively. A part-time starter last season, Davis went for 7.5 ppg, 4.7 rpg and 1.2 spg. – he also had 14 in game two at Wazzu. Atlason was on the Missouri Valley All-Freshman team last season after averaging 4.6 ppg, 1.7 rpg, in near 20 minutes per game. Proving to have some diverse scorers, forward Darius Hannah scored 14 in Washington and guard Zek Montgomery has scored 15 and 13 this season.
The Braves are averaging 81 ppg after 74.1 ppg last season. So far, Bradley is shooting 50 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from three – getting to the free throw line pretty steadily, where shooting is at 71.7 percent. The Braves force a fair share of turnovers like in previous seasons, but also give up the ball as well. Through two games, they are averaging 15 turnovers and 13 for their opponents, collecting 7.0 steals per game.
Up Next
UTSA returns to the friendly confines of the Convocation Center, hosting a rematch from last season with Little Rock – a team receiving top-25 votes in the. That contest between the Roadrunners and Trojans is at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 16.
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