CEDAR CITY, Utah – Nov. 30 – Junior guard A.J. Hess hit a 40 foot jumper as time expired to give the Thunderbirds a 93-92 win over the Roadrunners of University of Texas – San Antonio.
UTSA came out on fire as Jeromie Hill hit two three pointers for the Roadrunners out of the gate. A Casey Oliverson jumper and Hess three pulled the Thunderbirds within one at 6-5. The Roadrunners would go on an 11-4 run and would take an eight-point lead by the first media timeout.
James McGee again would come off the bench and give SUU a spark as he knocked down two big three pointers to bring SUU to within five at 22-17. Tyler Rawson would add two free throws and the Thunderbirds were in business, down just 23-19. UTSA would respond quickly with a three, pushing their lead to seven.
In the last four minutes of the first half, SUU would go on a 10-2 run to bring them to within three points of the Roadrunners at 51-48. UTSA would score four straight points to end the half with a seven-point lead, 55-48.
The second half would start with UTSA scoring four straight to push their lead to 11 points. The Roadrunners' lead would get as big as 12 points at 63-51, but that's when the Thunderbirds would flip the switch and make their comeback. McGee would again come in and rally the Thunderbirds by hitting back-to-back three pointers to pull SUU to within three points with just under 15 minutes to play. The Roadrunners would hold a three to five point lead for most of the second half and with two minutes left Hill would hit another three to give UTSA an 84-79 advantage.
Keon Lewis would push the UTSA lead to six by hitting from downtown and it looked like it would seal the deal for UTSA. Under two minutes and down by six, SUU would start to send the Roadrunners to the free throw line. McGee would knock one down from deep, UTSA hit two free throws, and Hess hit another three to make it just a two point lead for UTSA with 37 seconds to play.
The Roadrunners had four free throws to seal it but missed two of them to keep SUU in the game. Race Parsons would enter the game and immediately knock down a three to make it a one-point ball game at 91-90 and the Thunderbirds would foul right away to give them one last chance. UTSA missed one out of two free throws to give them a two-point lead with three seconds left. Hess caught the inbounds pass at half court on the right side of the floor, took two quick dribbles and pulled up from about 40 feet and banked the shot home with no time left.
“We had multiple guys hit big shots and we had four guys in double digits. I couldn't be more pleased with the effort from the guys tonight,” Coach Nick said. He added, ”The difference in the game tonight was the free throws, we shot 76.2 percent and they shot 60.9 percent. Especially at the end of the game, they missed some free throws to give us a chance.”
McGee led the Thunderbirds with 21 points on 7-8 shooting from three. Hess added 20 points and seven rebounds in 23 minutes. Tyler Rawson chipped in 15 points and led SUU with eight rebounds. Trey Kennedy had six assists to just two turnovers in the win, playing 29 minutes.
The Thunderbirds come back home for a game against St. Katherine's this Saturday at 7:00 p.m. in the Centrum Arena.
