’Runners’ late shot at win turns into swat
Trailing by one point with two seconds left in the game, Cedrick Alley Jr. caught a pass on the block and went up for a layup.
Instead of finding the bottom of the net, the redshirt senior met Isaih Moore, who swatted the attempt back into Alley’s hands as time expired.
“We had a shot right at the basket; we just couldn’t convert it,” UTSA coach Steve Henson said. “It was the right play for us to make. They challenged the shot. They’ve got good length in there. We just can’t be in that position.”
UTSA (7-8, 0-2 Conference USA) trailed by as many as 10 points in Thursday night’s 74-73 loss to Southern Miss, but it battled back to make it a one-possession game in the closing seconds.
“There were some positive stretches and there were some individuals that had some good moments,” Henson said. “We had a lot of penetration throughout the night and we had a chance to turn the corner, but their length inside did bother us. They’re a good shotblocking team.”
Moments before tipoff, the UTSA athletic department released a statement announcing top scorer Dhieu Deing’s departure from the team in pursuit of professional basketball opportunities. The Roadrunners entered Thursday’s matchup scoring an average of 69.7 points per game, which ranked No. 10 in Conference USA and No. 228 nationally.
“We love him,” Henson said. “Dhieu did a great job for us, worked really, really hard. He competed, he loved the game. He just felt like he had some opportunities to go play professionally. It was pretty abrupt. I don’t know if that’s been on his mind. But it just happened this week, so we wish him well.”
Henson said he doesn’t know of any specific destinations for Deing, but he turned the focus toward adapting the offense moving forward.
“The theme has been being more efficient,” Henson said. “Dhieu was scoring a lot of points, but for weeks we’ve just been trying to get better shots. Made some progress; we took two steps forward and took a step back two or three weeks ago. We have some other people getting a little more comfortable, and that will help us.”
Without him though, the UTSA offense sputtered early, shooting a collective 3-18 from the floor and 0-6 from beyond the arc in the game’s first eight minutes.
“It wasn’t great,” Henson said. “When they pressed us some, it kept us from flowing right into what we wanted to do. We didn’t pick hard enough, didn’t move the ball sharp enough.”
A thunderous two-handed dunk by Jacob Germany with 10 minutes left halted a 10-2 scoring run, and Alley sank a triple from the left wing to pull the Roadrunners to within three. UTSA made it three consecutive scoring possessions when Germany spun toward the baseline and lofted a lefthanded hook shot into the bottom of the net to cut the deficit to 19-16.
Aleu Aleu scored seven consecutive points for the Roadrunners, and Germany threw down a onehanded flush off a turnover to even the score at 32-32 heading into the break. The junior followed his career high of 13 points Monday with 11 more against the Golden Eagles while setting a new career best of seven rebounds in the loss.
UTSA scored the first five points of the second half, but Southern Miss responded with a 14-2 run to give the Golden Eagles a 46-39 edge six minutes into the period.
Later in the half, Jordan Ivy-curry started to heat up from the outside as UTSA continued to chip away at the deficit. The sophomore guard finished with a gamehigh 23 points and five rebounds.
Southern Miss (5-8, 1-0) connected from long range on its next three scoring possessions, but Ivycurry and Alley answered to keep pace with the Golden Eagles. Alley, who finished the night with 15 points, hit a layup with 35 seconds remaining to bring UTSA to within one before Southern Miss sealed the game with the last-second block.
The Roadrunners next have a conference game against Louisiana Tech at 3 p.m. Saturday at the UTSA Convocation Center.
“The big focus is their big guy (Kenneth Lofton),” Henson said. “He’s an elite post player. He’s kind of a throwback center. It’s good that we just faced some interior players tonight, but he’s got a whole different skill set.