IRVING, Texas – Marking the first weekly honors for UTSA in the 2024-25 season, officials from the American Athletic Conference league office announced on Monday that Baboucarr Njie has been named AAC Freshman of the Week, while Primo Spears was among those recognized with weekly Honorable Mention.
Njie (Fr., G/F, Centerville, Ohio) had a productive start in his first two collegiate games last week, averaging 3.5 points and 4.0 rebounds per contest, helping the Roadrunners to back-to-back victories over Merrimack and Houston Christian. In the neutral-site game against Merrimack, his key free throws snapped a UTSA scoring drought and then he delivered a perfectly-timed steal with 1:07 to go, grabbing an offensive board and drawing a shooting foul on the subsequent possession. In his debut, he logged five points and five rebounds, also finishing the week with an assist, a block and two steals.
Spears (Sr., G, Hartford, Conn.) registered back-to-back season-high-scoring games and led the Roadrunners to consecutive victories, while averaging 26.7 ppg, 4.0 apg and 3.0 rpg, shooting 43.8 percent on the week. Against Merrimack, Spears was at the forefront of the Roadrunners’ 14-point comeback to victory, scoring 15 of the final 20 UTSA points for a game total of 29, in addition to his five rebounds and three assists. Against Houston Christian, it was 10 of UTSA’s final 19 points to Spears as the Roadrunners pulled away for the win – finishing 7-of-8 at the free throw line, shooting 44 percent from the field with 31 points, five assists and three rebounds. For his efforts, he’s tied for the most single-game points in the AAC by a player this year and leads the AAC with a 23.7 scoring average while ranking fourth in the NCAA. He also scored 20 in the loss at Troy.
The road is where UTSA is headed on Monday, traveling to St. Mary’s (CA) for a Tuesday, Dec. 3 date in Moraga, California. On the week’s tail end, UTSA will travel to Fayetteville to face John Calipari’s highly-lauded Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday, Dec. 7 at historic Bud Walton Arena.
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