SAN ANTONIO – The UTSA men’s basketball team (5-4) extended its win streak to three games after sprinting to a 33-point victory over Arkansas-Fort Smith (1-9), courtesy of a 58-point second half effort on Sunday afternoon at the Convocation Center. Holding just a seven-point halftime lead, UTSA unleashed a scoring flurry after the break to pull away to a 93-60 victory, aided by dueling 20-point performances from Carlton Linguard Jr. and Isaiah Wyatt. Including 13 in the second half, UTSA notched a new school record from the perimeter with 19 threes in the victory.
The Roadrunners made their perimeter attack a known quantity early, with Christian Tucker draining a three from the top of the key on the very first UTSA possession. The junior guard combined with Wyatt and Linguard to put down four long-range bombs in the opening four minutes for a 14-1 advantage. Once Arkansas-Fort Smith found their offensive footing, it took the Lions nearly nine minutes to build of a double-digit scoring total. Although UAFS slowly trimmed the deficit to seven, the Roadrunners responded with a 12-4 scoring push that grew the first-half lead to 17 points.
After putting on a clinic early in the first half, Linguard took a seat for the final 8:25 following a skyhook from seven feet, and the Lions started to get back on track. Meanwhile, the UTSA offense saw a slow finish to the period as UAFS outscored the Roadrunners 14-10 with Linguard off the court – bringing the margin as close as six before a PJ Carter free throw set the UTSA halftime lead at 35-28.
The Lions came out of the half on a mission, trimming the deficit to just three points on a Cameron Bush pull-up jumper just two minutes in. However, the Roadrunners unleashed their long-range shooting once again, knocking down four three-pointers over the next two minutes – capped off a Tucker four-point play.
Attacking with a furious scoring pace, the Roadrunners outscored the Lions 13-2 over a near-three-minute stretch to balloon their lead to 18 points – making seven consecutive shots heading into the 12-minute timeout.
Perimeter shooting fueled another 18-1 run for UTSA over a 4:42 stretch deep in the second half, the Lions tag-teamed by Wyatt, Linguard, Tucker and Dre Fuller Jr. as the Roadrunners broke open a 30-point game. Freshman Nazar Mahmoud put the exclamation point on a game-high 33-point lead and 93-60 win via UTSA’s 19th three-pointer to set the program record – surpassing the 2019-20 team’s effort at Louisiana Tech on Jan. 9, 2020.
Leading a corps of six long-range scorers, Linguard registered a career-high 21 points, including a career-best 5-for-7 shooting performance beyond the arc – going 8-for-13 overall. Linguard also collected seven rebounds. Fresh off an American Athletic Conference Honor Roll nod for his 27 points against Lamar, Wyatt also went 5-for-10 from downtown for a 20-point output, along with two assists and five rebounds. The last time UTSA had two scorers over 20 points was Dhieu Deing (26) and Isaiah Addo-Ankrah (21) at Southern Miss on Feb. 17, 2022.
Tucker almost made it a third in the club, notching 17 points with a career-high 4-for-7 from three – while also maintaining his status as the AAC’s assist leader, with six dished out against the Lions.
On the glass, Fuller and Chandler Cuthrell both went for eight boards apiece, anchoring a season-high 53-rebound total. Although no Roadrunner hit double-digit boards, all nine players registered multiple rebounds.
Up Next
The Roadrunners wrapped a four-game home stand with the first three-game winning streak since last November and head out to Arkansas next week for a Dec. 13 game at Little Rock. The Roadrunners will make a quick return to the house before flying west for the fourth meeting against a Pac-12 opponent in the last five seasons via a Dec. 17 trip to Oregon State. UTSA’s next date in the Convo is Dec. 21 in the Military Appreciation Game against Army West Point.
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