SAN MARCOS — Preparing to face a defense as strong as Texas State’s, UTSA coach Steve Henson wasn’t sure if Saturday could be the day everything came together.

But when the Roadrunners took the court, he noticed several qualities that had been missing during the team’s slow start.

Active, competitive defense. Rebounding. Better offensive possessions.

At the end of a 77-71 win at Strahan Arena in San Marcos, Henson said UTSA had put together its best performance of the season “without a doubt.”

“We haven’t felt like we’ve played the way we’re capable of even many halves this year,” he said. “So for us to do it in this environment, against this team, really proud of our guys. I think maybe this can jump-start us.”

Through seven games, the Roadrunners were just 1-6, with the only victory coming against an NAIA opponent in Wiley College. On Tuesday, UTSA showed signs of being the team that was projected to finish second in the Conference USA coaches poll, beating Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 89-67.

The Roadrunners followed with their toughest win of the season Saturday, sparked by 33 points from Jhivvan Jackson. After Texas State (6-4) scored nine straight points to take its only lead of the second half at 48-45, UTSA (3-6) notched 10 unanswered to pull ahead about midway through the period.

The Roadrunners’ lead was not threatened down the stretch.

“That’s probably what we’re going to look like for the rest of the year,” Jackson said.

Jackson’s 33 points marked a season high.

He hit 13 of 26 shots from the field and 5 of 10 from beyond the arc, bouncing back after scoring a season-low 12 points against the Islanders on Tuesday. He missed his first two shots, then hit six straight, scoring 14 points in a 5-minute stretch of the first half.

“I just kind of let the game come to me,” Jackson said. “I tried to take the easiest shots today. I know they’re a good defensive team. I knew they were going to lock in on me.”

Henson said Jackson has the tendency to shine in bigger games, like Saturday’s against a local rival.

His 21 points in the first half marked a new career high for the first 20 minutes. He entered the day ranked fifth nationally in points per game and boosted his scoring average to 24.9 in the victory.

“I’m really not worried about my stats this year. I’m just trying to win,” Jackson said. “If it’s scoring 10 points or scoring 30, it doesn’t matter. All I want to do is win.”

Mason Harrell led Texas State with 19 points, while Caleb Asberry had 18 and Nijal Pearson netted 15.

Down the stretch, UTSA’s defense switched to a box-and-one look to try to limit Pearson — Texas State’s leading scorer at 18 points per game entering Saturday. The Roadrunners sent four players back in a zone while the fifth, usually Keaton Wallace or Erik Czumbel, tried to guard Pearson one-on-one and deny him the ball.

Pearson’s last basket of the game was a layup with 10 minutes remaining. He was held to 0 for 3 shooting the rest of the way.

The Roadrunners worked on the new defensive formation for only a couple days in practice, but Henson said making the switch was a worthwhile move, as UTSA is “not where we hope to be” with its base defense.

“We want to keep working on our man, but didn’t want to be stubborn, either,” Henson said. “We thought we could just change the rhythm of the game a little bit by throwing a different defense out there.”

UTSA had one of its best 3-point shooting games of the season, making 11 shots from beyond the arc at a 44 percent clip. Wallace added 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting, while Czumbel had 11, hitting 3 of 5 shots from 3-point range.

Czumbel said the atmosphere Saturday felt “like it was a home game,” with Roadrunners fans making up a chunk of the 2,463 in attendance.

One particularly vocal group behind UTSA’s bench caught Henson’s ear.

“Rarely during the course of a game do I notice the fans,” Henson said. “You get dialed in, and you don’t even notice. I noticed our crew when they came in the first half. We fed off of that a little bit. … They were having fun, making noise, and we had the lead, so our fans impacted the game more than their fans.”

greg.luca@express-news.net

Twitter: @GregLuca