UAB rallies past UTSA in C-USA quarterfinals.
UTSA led by as many as 12 points before UAB stormed ahead in the second half, taking control to beat the Roadrunners, 85-76, in the quarterfinals of the Conference USA tournament on Thursday at The Star in Frisco.
The No. 4 seed Roadrunners (17-15, 11-8 C-USA) earned a first-round bye in the tournament before losing to the No. 5 Blazers (2013, 12-8), who beat No. 12 Middle Tennessee, 70-61, on Wednesday.
UTSA jumped out to a 19-7 lead in the opening minutes and led by seven at halftime, but UAB pushed ahead about five minutes into the second half and never relinquished the advantage.
HIGH-SCORING DUO RUNS HOT AND COLD
UTSA’s Jhivvan Jackson, Conference USA’s leading scorer with 22.4 points per game entering Thursday, scored a game-high 35 points on 9-of-24 shooting, including 5 of 15 from beyond the arc. He also added six rebounds and five assists. Jackson added 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting during the first half before going cold for stretches in the second, hitting just 2 of 13 shots.
Keaton Wallace, UTSA’s second-leading scorer with 20.5 points per game during the regular season, scored 12 points on 5-of-14 shooting, including just 1 of 9 from beyond the arc.
Jackson and Wallace were held scoreless during the first 8 minutes of the second half, and Jackson left the game for about three minutes of that stretch after appearing to roll his right ankle.
SHOOTING SWING
UTSA built its first-half advantage on the strength of 59.3 percent shooting, then cooled off by hitting just 33.3 percent in the second half. The Roadrunners looked bothered by the Blazers’ zone defense, hitting 2 of 15 from beyond the arc in the second half after making 7 of 16 from outside in the first.
UAB swung the other direction, making 36.7 percent of its shots in the first half and 50.0 percent in the second.
INTERIOR FORCE
UAB built a 42-30 rebounding advantage for the game and scored 21 secondchance points compared to UTSA’s 10.
Roadrunners senior Nick Allen, a typical starter inside, came off the bench after missing the previous two games because of a broken toe and scored seven points with a rebound in 22 minutes. Atem Bior started in Allen’s place and scored two points with seven rebounds in 21 minutes.
Fellow frontcourt starter Byron Frohnen had two points and three rebounds in 21 minutes, while Adrian Rodriguez contributed six points and three rebounds in 16 minutes off the bench.
WHAT’S NEXT?
UTSA will have to await possible selection to the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) or CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) as the fields are set this weekend.
UTSA last season played in the CIT, marking the program’s first postseason berth since advancing to the 2011 NCAA Tournament. Last year’s Roadrunners were selected after a loss in the C-USA tournament quarterfinals, falling to Marshall to drop to 19-14.