SAN ANTONIO – The UTSA men’s basketball team (1-1) opened strong and showed flashes of its early-season potential on Friday afternoon, but visiting SIUE (2-0) capitalized down the stretch to hand the Roadrunners a 77-60 decision in the midday tilt at the Convocation Center. The Roadrunners split the record on the first week of action after a big opening-night win on Wednesday.
Graduate transfer guard Jamir Simpson made his presence known early, scoring eight of UTSA’s first 11 points to help build a seven-point advantage at 11-4 just five minutes in after drilling a three at the 14:55 mark.
The Cougars chipped away midway throughout the first half, but the Roadrunners worked to keep pace at the line while enduring a brief field goal drought. Arnas Sakenis tied the game at 20-all on a putback with 6:22 left, before freshman forward Kaidon Rayfield quickly answered from beyond the arc. Graduate guard Pierce Spencer added a turnaround jumper to keep UTSA in front, though SIUE gained its first lead in the closing minutes and carried a 34-29 edge into the break after Myles Thompson hit a buzzer-beater.
Coming out of the break, both teams came out firing from long range to start the second half, trading threes over the opening minutes of the new period. It looked like Simpson would be the spark again for the Roadrunners after making an interception and taking it the distance for a dunk, but SIUE responded with a 9-0 run to push ahead by double digits. Rayfield and Austin Nunez put away scores to cut into the Cougar lead, but SIUE pulled away in the final 10 minutes en route to the 77-60 finish.
Simpson recorded his second straight double-figure outing, leading UTSA with 16 points to go with three rebounds and three steals. Rayfield was just shy of a second consecutive double-double, finishing with 10 points and nine boards. Dorian Hayes and Nunez each added 10 points, while Baboucarr Njie pulled down a career-high 11 rebounds to pace the Roadrunners on the glass.
Up Next
UTSA hits the road for the first time next week, heading up I-35 to San Marcos to face Texas State for the first time since 2023-24, meeting the Bobcats at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 12. The weekend will send UTSA to the Mountain Time Zone with a Nov. 15 matchup at Denver.
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