UTSA (14-14, 9-7 C-USA) suffered a heart-breaking loss to the Southern Miss Lady Eagles (20-8, 13-4 C-USA) on Thursday. Feb. 26 due to a buzzer-beating three-pointer. Fortunately, the Roadrunners bounced back on Senior Night, Saturday. Feb. 28, against the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters (14-14, 9-8 C-USA).

The first half of the Southern Miss game was packed with turnovers as both teams combined for 23. UTSA shot 36 percent from the field in the first half, and the Lady Eagles took advantage, leading by as much as seven points early on.

Despite the early troubles, the Roadrunners went into halftime leading 28-24.

In the second half UTSA jumped on top early thanks to a 9-4 run. Southern Miss stayed close thanks to the efforts of Tamara Jones and Jerontay Clemons who each had team-highs of 12 points for the Eagles.

Southern Miss went on an 8-0 run to take the lead with under 12 minutes left of play.

Taking the lead back, UTSA guard Mathilde Hergott sank a shot from beyond the arc, putting UTSA up 59-58 in the closing minutes of the game.

With the Lady Eagles down by one point with one second left on the clock, Southern Miss. guard Alex Coyne nailed an off-balanced game-winning three-pointer. The shot put Southern Miss up 61-59 for the win.

UTSA guard Kamra King had a game-high 21 points, while teamates Akunna Elonu contributed 12 points and Mannasha Bell chipped in 13 points of her own while adding 10 rebounds. Free throws were the story for the loss, however, as the Roadrunners went 12-29 from the free throw line.

“It’s a matter of concentration, it’s a matter of confidence. You have to have faith in yourself when shooting (free throws),” explained UTSA Head Coach Lubomyr Lichonczak.

“I guess they just out-hustled us,” commented King. “We just need to put that (loss) behind us and move on to the next game,” she continued

The following game against Louisiana Tech was very close as both teams traded leads early on in the first half before a three-pointer from Niaga Mitchell-Cole sparked a 15-4 run for the Roadrunners late in the half.

“The first half was incredible. Our defense was there, our focus was there, our intensity was there,” said Lichonczak.

UTSA came out hot in the second half after two consecutive baskets by Elonu put UTSA up by 18.

Louisiana Tech never recovered as King — who ended with a game-high 18 points and three steals — paced UTSA.

“We just knew that we couldn’t lose this game,” said King.

UTSA has two more games left in the regular-season at Rice on Thursday, March 5, and at North Texas on Saturday. March 7.