Dec. 13, 2008

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Texas State at Texas Game Stats in PDF Format

AUSTIN, TEXAS - The Texas State Bobcats gave sixth-ranked Texas all it could handle for 37 minutes, but came up short in the end as the Longhorns escaped with an 81-73 victory in the Frank Erwin Center Saturday afternoon.

The Bobcats held Texas to 36 percent shooting, outrebounded the Longhorns 46-42 and their reserves outscored Texas' 43-12.

"I am extremely proud of our team and like I said all along we have a really good team," Texas State head coach Doug Davalos said. "There are a lot of positives that we can take from this game."

The Bobcats were led by sophomore forward Cameron Johnson's 24 points in Johnson's first start of the season. Brent Benson came off the bench to add 18 points, while Brandon Bush registered 13 points and nine rebounds to go along with his team-high two steals. Ryan White also added 10 points and career highs of eight rebounds and six assists for the Bobcats.

A.J. Abrams scored 30 points, including 13 of Texas' final 16. Texas State had held Abrams without a field goal for the first 15 minutes of the second half before he hit a baseline jumper, registered a steal and nailed a three-pointer to spark a late run. Then, Texas put it away from the free throw line.

"A win is a win. I think we have some guys who could have played better, but not everybody is going to play their best every game," Abrams said.

One Longhorn who did was 6-foot-10, 300-pound forward Dexter Pittman, who scored a career-high 17 points and had 10 rebounds despite playing just 14 minutes because of foul trouble.

"Dexter is a force to be reckoned with," Texas head coach Rick Barnes said.

Texas jumped out to an early 10-0 lead before the Bobcats rallied to take an 18-17 lead with a lay-up from Brent Benson, who scored 14 of the Bobcats' first 18 points.

"We came out and jumped on them, then started turning the ball over. We thought it was going to be easy," Barnes said.

Texas State proved those assumptions wrong as both teams fought back and forth the rest of the half. Texas outscored the Bobcats 14-10 in the final seven minutes to lead 38-34 at halftime. .

Unlike last season, when Texas led the Bobcats by two at halftime and pulled away in the opening minutes of the second half, the Longhorns couldn't shake them until late in this one.

Pittman missed two layups, Damion James missed another and Texas State took a 50-49 lead on Johnson's reverse layup with 12:58 to play.

"I think, I know, the players in our locker room came in believing we could win this game," Davalos said.

What Texas State didn't have an answer for was Pittman's size and he was a huge target in the Texas offense when he was on the court. Six straight points by Pittman, including a three-point play, helped put Texas up 61-54.

"Sexy Dexy was on point today," Abrams said. "We should have given him the ball more."

But Pittman soon picked up his fourth foul and the Bobcats kept hanging around, cutting the Texas lead to 65-63 on another Johnson layup.

"We pushed the ball on them. Coach told us to keep running, keep running and we could get some easy baskets," Benson said.

Abrams, who had 15 points in the first half, made his first basket of the second with 4:45 left. Ten seconds later, he stole a pass and quickly dribbled up court before pulling up for his fifth 3-pointer that gave the Longhorns a 70-63 lead. Six straight free throws by Abrams finally gave Texas its first double-digit lead since the opening minutes.

Texas State couldn't get closer than eight points in the final seconds as the Longhorns held for the victory.