The UTSA Roadrunners women’s basketball team grabbed a win in their exhibition game on Friday, Nov. 1, beating the East Central University Tigers (ECU) 76-50 at the Convocation Center.

The second half was physical as ECU and UTSA racked up 24 team fouls combined; however, the Roadrunners scored 23 of their 35 second half points from the free throw line. Up 41-24 at the half, UTSA outscored ECU 13-10 in the first 10 minutes of the game, pushing their lead to 20 points.

The Tigers could only get as close as 18 points as UTSA dominated buzzer-to-buzzer for the 26-point win.

UTSA senior guard Miki Turner led the team with 16 points and five rebounds, building on her success from last season. Turner averaged 6.1 points per game in the WAC, and she was one of the Roadrunners’ top-six scorers. Turner will be relied upon to increase her scoring load heading into UTSA’s first season in Conference USA (C-USA).

“Overall, I think the game was pretty good,” Turner said after the win. “We did a lot of good things and some bad things, but I think as a team, we improved. That’s the only thing you can hope for each day.”

The Roadrunners also had an impressive debut from freshman center Tesha Smith, who collected 15 rebounds, while junior guard Kamra King added 13 points.

King, who played in all 30 games last season, led the team in scoring at 9.8 points per game and 2.1 steals per game.

Although the win was a great start, UTSA players and coaches felt there is much that could have been done in the second half to improve.

“We were up at half time, but the second half we should have killed them and we didn’t,” King said. “We just lost focus at the end of the game.”

The current UTSA roster has seven freshmen on the team, which may why the team got comfortable in the second half.

“I thought we got a little complacent in the second half, and that’s indicative of a young team, when they’re ahead and they kind of take their foot off the gas,” UTSA head coach Lubomyr Lichonczak said. “You can’t do that in college basketball, so we’ll get them to understand that and keep them going.”

The Roadrunners are coming off a 16-win season, including 10 wins in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) last year. UTSA finished fourth in the conference when the team was projected to finish in eighth. The Roadrunners hope to prove people wrong in C-USA as well.

“It’s a good start, but it’s only a start,” Lichonczak said. “We have a ways to go.”

The Roadrunners begin the 2013-14 regular season on Sunday, Nov. 10, against The Texas Longhorns at 2 p.m. at the Frank Erwin Center. UTSA follows up with their home opener on Thursday, Nov. 14, at the Convocation Center playing the Lamar Cardinals.