FORT WORTH, Texas – Looking for the third time to be the charm for the Roadrunners as the 11th-seeded UTSA men’s basketball team (12-18, 6-12 AAC) opens American Athletic Conference Basketball Championships play on Thursday, March 13, against the No. 6 seed East Carolina Pirates (18-13, 10-8 AAC). The Roadrunners and Pirates will tip off at 8 p.m. CDT at Dickies Arena in UTSA’s second appearance in the tournament since joining the league in 2023-24. The game will be televised live on ESPNU and streamed on ESPN+, as well as the broadcast on UTSA radio.
On TV, on the Air and on the Web
Thursday’s 8 p.m. CDT matchup at Dickies Arena will be televised nationally on ESPNU with an accompanying stream on ESPN+. Jon Schriffen (play-by-play), Richard Hendrix (analyst) and Alyssa Lang (reporter) will be on the call.
The radio broadcast will appear on Sports Radio AM 760 The Ticket with Andy Everett (play-by-play) covering the action live from Fort Worth. As always, the broadcast will feature a 30-minute pregame and 15-minute postgame show – available online at Ticket760.com or via the free iHeartRadio app.
The American will also provide Live Stats.
About the UTSA Roadrunners
The Roadrunners broke out of February’s funk at just the right time with the postseason journey beginning on Thursday. After going 1-6 in February, UTSA has won two of its last three games to open the month of March, blowing out Rice at home in a decisive 84-56 victory, taking No. 16 Memphis to the wire in a 75-70 loss and then sealing up the regular season on an 83-80 win at Charlotte. The Roadrunners’ strengths give them every opportunity to move along the bracket, especially with the two losses to East Carolina decided by a total of only eight points. UTSA is the top team in The American beyond the arc, putting up 27.8 long-range shots per game and splashing an NCAA 25th-best 10.0 per game. UTSA is also quick to move the ball, featuring the nation’s 49th-fastest offensive tempo and an NCAA 12th-most 15.3 ppg on the fast break. As always, boosting that running production is the Roadrunner takeaways, listing at eighth in the nation with 9.6 steals per game and 15.3 turnovers forced per contest. The Roadrunners average the AAC’s fifth-best scoring at 77.1 ppg and grab 32.1 rpg.
Leading the pack the entire season, senior guard Primo Spears is 23rd nationally with 19.8 ppg, also pacing the Roadrunners with 4.0 apg and chipping in 1.7 spg. Sophomore guard Marcus Millender has been hot in conference play with 16.9 ppg against AAC opponents toward his team second-best 14.6 ppg on the season, also adding 3.3 apg and 1.7 spg. Firing things up from deep, senior guard Damari Monsanto is 12th nationally with an AAC-high 3.28 threes per game on 41.5 percent perimeter shooting. He's got 12 games this year with at least four triples and two games he reached a season-high seven treys – posting a combined eight in the two games with ECU. In the post, senior forward Jonnivius Smith leads UTSA on the boards with a league-fifth 7.4 rpg, while also keeping the circle clear with a team-high, AAC-sixth 1.5 blocks per outing.
UTSA and Claunch in Conference Tournaments
UTSA enters the tournament with a 27-31 program record in conference tournament appearances, with only an 0-1 record from last season in AAC tournaments. UTSA will be appearing in a conference tournament for the 20th consecutive year. In 2023-24, UTSA fell to eventual runner-up Temple, 64-61, despite a double-digit comeback in the second half. Creating offensive challenges, UTSA shot 31.7% from the field, 24% from three. The Roadrunners are in search of their fourth all-time conference tournament championship and their first since claiming the 2010-11 Southland Conference crown. UTSA won the SLC in 2004 and 1999, and the TransAmerica Athletic Conference in 1988. UTSA's last win in a conference championship was a 2021 defeat of fifth-seeded Charlotte in the C-USA tournament at Frisco's Ford Center at The Star, 72-62. UTSA's last two-win tournament was the 2013 WAC tournament, when the 9-seed Roadrunners opened with a 67-49 victory over 8-seed San Jose State, then followed with a 73-67 win over top-seeded Louisiana Tech before dropping the semifinal to 4-seed UT Arlington, 69-53.
First-year head coach Austin Claunch is in his first appearance at the AAC Basketball Championships. From his time as head coach at Nicholls State, he earned his first Southland Conference Tournament win on March 12, 2021, against Northwestern State and is 3-4 in conference tournament appearances.
About the Series
It was a one-point loss for the Roadrunners when these teams met in San Antonio, as UTSA built a seven-point halftime lead, but the Pirates battled back throughout the second half and an untimely jump ball gave ECU the opportunity for CJ Walker to hit the game-sealing turnaround jumper with :04 on the clock for the 80-79 final. In Greenville, it was a dogfight all the way to the end of regulation and ECU pulled away in the extra period on late UTSA turnovers – and RJ Felton carrying the Pirates with 30 points in the 96-89 overtime final. Thursday marks the sixth meeting between these teams, with East Carolina holding a 5-0 advantage after restarting the series last year with a Pirates win in San Antonio. UTSA and ECU will meet on a neutral floor for the first time since March 11, 2014, when the Pirates edged out the Roadrunners, 79-76, in El Paso at the Conference USA Tournament.
About the East Carolina Pirates
Starting with their win over UTSA on Feb. 8, East Carolina earned wins in six of their final eight contests of the year to garner the AAC’s sixth seed, coming into Thursday’s matchup at 18-13 (10-8 AAC). The Pirates use a complementary playing style to the Roadrunners, running when the opportunity arises for their high-scoring offense. East Carolina averages 76.0 ppg and is fourth in the AAC with 13.9 ppg off the fast break, but don’t spend the whole game in transition. The Pirates’ focus is on the two, only shooting threes 35.1 percent of the time and ranking 11th in the AAC with 6.6 triples per game. As a team, ECU is shooting 43.8 percent from the field but is fourth in the conference on the boards at 37.2 rpg.
Putting up 30 in the last outing with the Roadrunners, Felton leads the AAC in field goal attempts, hoisting 15.6 shots per game toward his 41.1-percent shooting and team-high, AAC-third 18.5 ppg. Felton ties Walker for a team-best 6.5 rpg, while grabbing 1.3 spg and doling out 2.5 apg. The other half of the one-two punch, Walker scores 17.5 ppg on 51.5-percent shooting, while Riley Jordan is at 14.4 ppg with 5.8 rpg – leading the AAC with 2.0 steals per contest.
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