The Roadrunner men’s basketball team concluded the stretch of games played during the break with a 5-3 record. The Roadrunners played four road games, two non-conference games against Houston and Troy and two conference contests at Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin State.
The Roadrunners also hosted four home games, two against non-conference foes, UC Riverside and Bowling Green, as well as conference foes Nicholls and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
The eight game stretch began on the road on Dec. 20 at the University of Houston Cougars.
The game was a tough back-and-forth fight between the Roadrunners and Cougars. The Cougars ultimately defended their home court and escaped with a 77-75 win that dropped the Roadrunners to their fifth loss of the season.
Two nights after the setback in Houston, the Roadrunners got back in the win column against the Troy Trojans, 76-70 in Troy, Alabama. Junior Guard Melvin Johnson led the Roadrunners with 25 points as the Roadrunners improved their season record to 6-5.
After a week off for Christmas, the Roadrunners returned to action on Dec. 28 at home against the UC-Riverside Highlanders. The Roadrunners fell back to a .500 winning average on the season after the Highlanders handed the Roadrunners a 70-65 defeat.
The Roadrunners began the new year with a New Years Day home bout with the Bowling Green Falcons. The Roadrunners made sure to start 2012 on a high note as they pulled out a hard fought overtime victory, 86-79.
Three days later, on Jan. 4, the Roadrunners opened up the defense of the Southland Conference Title with a victory over the Nicholls Colonels. The Roadrunners were never really challenged as they raced out to a big lead en-route to a 91-50 win that set a school record for largest margin of victory in the 20 year history of UTSA in the Southland.
The Roadrunners returned to the road on Jan. 8 against the Sam Houston State Bearkats in a game originally scheduled for Jan. 7 but was moved due to the Bearkat football team’s appearance in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) National Championship game. Just like their football team the day before, at the hands of North Dakota State, the Bearkats were banished to defeat by the Roadrunners, 62-60, after Junior Guard Kannon Burrage scored the game-tying and victory-clinching baskets.
Looking for their fourth consecutive win on the year and a 3-0 start to Southland Conference play, the Roadrunners returned home on Jan. 11 to host the Texas A&M Corpus Christi Islanders. The Roadrunners were humbled on their home court by the Islanders, who led the Roadrunners by as much as 19 before the Roadrunners came back and held a late lead before the shooting woes that plagued the Roadrunners all night returned. The Islanders sailed back to Corpus Christi with their first conference win and second win of the season, 51-50.
The Roadrunners tried to get back to their winning ways on Saturday Jan. 14 in the pineywoods of Nacogdoches against the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks. In this task, the Roadrunners (10-7, 3-1 SLC) were successful as they left Johnson Coliseum with a 59-52 win that helped them keep up in the tight Southland West Division race.
