Jan. 9, 2010

Final Stats

Complete Statistics in PDF Format

Arlington, Texas- - Ryan White and Tony Bishop scored 14 points each and the Texas State men's basketball team used a strong defensive effort in the second half to win their first road game of the season and defeat UT Arlington 64-60 in the first Southland Conference game for both teams at Texas Hall on Saturday afternoon.

Cameron Johnson, Jonathan Sloan and John Bowman scored seven points each, and Johnson pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds as the Bobcats overcame a 36-29 deficit at halftime and improved their overall record to 7-8.

"I am extremely proud of our team's effort today," said Texas State head coach Doug Davalos. "This is the best game we have played defensively all season."

Texas State held SLC scoring leader Marquez Haynes nearly six points below his season scoring average as Haynes finished with a game-high 18 points, while Brandon Long scored 13 points and Dwight Gentry netted 10 points off the bench for the Mavericks, who fell to 7-6 this season.

Both teams began the game struggling to shoot the ball as Texas State made just one of its first six shots and the Mavericks missed their first six shots as well as the Bobcats held a 2-1 lead at the first media timeout of the game.

Texas State held a 17-14 lead with 7:53 left in the first half when UTA went to a 1-3-1 zone defense with two centers, Andrew Parker and Ismael Awange, patrolling the lane. The Bobcats struggled to score the rest of the half as the Mavericks outscored Texas State 22-12 the rest of the first half to take a 36-29 lead into halftime.

Texas State scored the first six points in the first half as Sloan made a pair of lay-ups off offensive rebounds and Bowman stole the ball from Gentry and threw the ball ahead to White for another lay-up to pull Texas State to within one 36-35.

After the Mavericks called timeout, Long scored on a backdoor lay-up to increase UTA's lead to three. But, Sloan made two more free throws. Bowman collected another steal and this time, he drove for a lay-up himself to put Texas State in front, 39-38 with 16:01 left to play. The Bobcats never trailed again.

Texas State led by as many as five points twice the rest the way. That last five-point lead came with 5:47 left to play when Bishop made a pair of free throws to make the score 57-52.

UTA closed to within one three times, but the Bobcats thwarted their efforts to regain the lead. The first time came when Haynes scored a pair of lay-ups to make the score 57-56 with 4:05 left to play.

But, White made the first of his two free throws on Texas State's next possession and after Sloan was fouled after grabbing an offensive rebound, he made the second of his two to extend the Bobcats' lead back to 59-56 with 3:11 left to play.

Long made a pair of free throws on UTA's next possession, but White made another lay-up to put Texas State in front 61-58 with two minutes to play.

UTA scored its final points of the game with 1:37 left when J.D. Davis scored on a slam dunk. The Mavericks had a chance to take the lead one last time when Long stole the ball from White and hit Gentry in the right baseline corner for a three-point shot. But, Gentry missed and Bishop grabbed a crucial defensive rebound. After he was fouled by Davis, Bishop calmly sank both free throws to extend Texas State's lead to three again 63-60. Long missed another three-point shot from the top of the key on UTA's next possession. Bishop grabbed the rebound again and was fouled by Davis once more.

This time, he missed the first free throw, but sank the second with eight seconds left to give the Bobcats their fourth straight victory over the Mavericks.

With the win, Texas State opens SLC play with a 1-0 record for the second straight year and will play host to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Wednesday, January 13, at 7:00 p.m. in Strahan Coliseum.