Roadrunner women’s basketball having banner season thanks to Jordyn Jenkins dominant success.
SAN ANTONIO — Saturday marks Senior Day for UTSA women’s basketball, with a matchup against Florida Atlantic on tap to mark the occasion.
It was a 2022 transfer portal package deal that has, in part, realized this banner season—one in which the Roadrunners have amassed a 24-3 record, including a 15-1 conference mark. The now-graduated Kyra White and Jordyn Jenkins both left USC and traded California for South Texas.
And with Jenkins’ outstanding final season (18.7 points per game, tops in the AAC) still going, the ladies have an opportunity to secure a trip to their first NCAA Tournament in more than 15 years.
It’s worked out for Jenkins, that leap of faith. Her coach, Karen Aston, agrees.
“Not any question about it. That’s all it was,” said Coach Aston.
“I liked her (Aston) from the jump,” Jenkins said.
Aston says there was “no question” San Antonio is where “God needed her to be.”
“It was what was best for her and her life,” Aston added.
Jenkins is also one of the conference’s top shot-stealers (31 this season, seventh in the AAC), free-throw shooters (81.4%, fourth in AAC) and overall shooters (47.7%, third in AAC).
Her efforts have lifted the Roadrunners to their most wins in a season since at least 2008-09, when UTSA went 24-9 under coach Rae Rippetoe-Blair and saw NCAA Tournament action.
The program has steadily improved in three-plus seasons under Aston, from a 7-23 mark in 2021-2022, to 13-19 the following campaign to 18-15 last season, culminating in a second-round loss in the 2024 WNIT Tourney.
“I don’t know, it was just kind of meant to be,” said Jenkins of her decision to come to UTSA. “It was something that I had to go with my gut with.”
“It was just a safe, almost a safe space for her,” added Aston. “To just get a restart and not have the hustle and bustle of L.A. life. It felt good when she came on the visit. She was a young person that really needed a reset terribly and this gave her that opportunity.”
By succeeding the way she has in San Antonio, Jenkins has made herself an anchor for a team asserting its contender status for the first time in over a decade.
But she says it was all rooted in grabbing an opportunity to be the best hooper she can be.
“I’ve always wanted to be the best player of the team,” Jenkins said. ‘I’ve just had to put in the work to get there.”
“She was searching for a family outside of her own family,” Aston said. “That’s what she found here. I think it was absolutely the best thing for that young lady.”
Tipoff is set for noon Saturday at UTSA’s Convocation Center.