March 4, 2010

Final Stats

San Antonio, Texas- - Cameron Johnson returned to Texas State's starting lineup in style as he scored 29 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead the Texas State men's basketball team to an 83-76 victory over UTSA on Wednesday night at the UTSA Convocation Center. Ryan White scored a career-high of 18 points and Uriel Segura added 10 points to help the Bobcats win their third straight game against the Roadrunners, including two games this season, in the annual I-35 Maroon vs. Orange rivalry.

Johnson, who sat out last Saturday's game at Northwestern State, scored Texas State's first six points in the game when he made three consecutive jump shots. His third jumper gave the Bobcats a 6-5 lead before Segura netted two straight three-point field goals to give the Bobcats a 12-5 lead.

After Demarco Stepter made a jumper in the lane for UTSA, Segura added a pair of free throws and White nailed a three-point lead to give the Bobcats a 17-7 lead. That was Texas State's largest lead in the first half. UTSA battled back to tie the score 39-39 at the intermission. Johnson ended the first half with 15 points and Segura tallied all of his 10 points in the opening period.

After the two teams battled back and forth in the first nine minutes of the second half, the Bobcats scored six straight points in the next two minutes to take a 66-60 lead. John Bowman and White scored four points on back-to-back lay-ups before J.B. Conley netted a pair of free throws.

After Devin Gibson, who led UTSA with 13 points, made a lay-up for the Roadrunners, White scored five straight points with a three-point field goal and a lay-up on a fast break to extend Texas State's lead to 71-62 with seven minutes to play.

Stepter scored three-points with a lay-up and free throw in an effort to get the Roadrunners back into contention, but Texas State had a pair of back-breaking possessions that resulted in three-point field goals by Bowman and John Rybak.

Bowman scored the first trey after the Bobcats corralled three offensive rebounds. Then, following White's steal from Stepter, Bowman found Rybak at the top of the key for the second three-pointer that increased Texas State's lead to 12 points, 77-65.

Morris Smith, IV made a lay-up for UTSA before Johnson scored four straight points with a jumper in the lane and a pair of free throws to give the Bobcats an 81-67 advantage with three minutes left to play. The Roadrunners couldn't get any closer than seven the rest of the way as the Bobcats went on to win the game 83-76.

With the win, Texas State improves its overall record to 14-15. The Bobcats also own an 8-7 Southland Conference mark and moved into a three-way tie with UTSA and UT Arlington for fifth place in the SLC standing.

The win was also Texas State's second straight win in SLC road games gives the Bobcats a 4-4 SLC road record this season.

The Bobcats close out the regular season with a home game against Sam Houston State this Saturday, Mar. 6 at 2:00 p.m. in Strahan Coliseum. Later that night, UTSA plays at Stephen F. Austin, while UT Arlington travels to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.