The UTSA women’s basketball won its third game of their five contests against Rice, winning 66-53 Thursday evening in the Convocation Center.

With the win over Rice (17-7, 8-7 C-USA) and FAU’s loss to Middle Tennessee, the Roadrunners move up to ninth in the conference standings, currently with a 5-10 league record and 7-17 overall.

UTSA jumped out to an early 10-0 lead. Forward Jordyn Jenkins wasted no time getting UTSA on the scoreboard with a field goal from the paint. Elyssa Coleman followed her teammates’ lead with another field goal.

Jenkins and Coleman each made layups to get the 8-0 lead, causing an Owls timeout. 

The Roadrunners ran a stout defense that kept Rice from scoring during the game’s first four minutes. 

UTSA led by 17 points after the first quarter. Jenkins had 10 points.

The Roadrunners led by as many as 20 points in the second quarter. The Owls went on a 13-3 run, though Sidney Love made a shot with four seconds remaining to head into halftime up by 12 points.

The Roadrunners outscored Rice 18-13 in the final quarter to claim the 13-point victory.

Head Coach Karen Aston credited the high camaraderie of the team to the support they receive from the fans and believes that a new group of fans has come to support the women at every game.

“The difference for our win today was the aggressiveness of our guards,” said Aston. 

“I appreciate players stepping up; we lost two point guards in the span of four days. I think we did an admirable job with how quickly we had to adjust to that,” said Aston.

Jenkins agreed that “the aggressiveness of our guards helped us win.”

The women will next face off against UAB. The game will tip-off at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 18, in Bartow Arena.