San Marcos, Texas – It was tale of two halves as the Texas State men's basketball team overcame a 14-point halftime deficit and came back to defeat UT-Arlington 79-71 in Strahan Coliseum on Saturday afternoon.
Eddie Rios came off the bench to score 20 points and lead four players in double figures for the Bobcats. In addition, Cameron Johnson scored 16 points and grabbed a game-high eight rebounds, while Travis Jones netted 15 points and Tony Bishop added 11 points to go along with his career-best four steals.
The Mavericks had a hot hand in the first half when they shot 55 percent from the field and made five of their seven free throws. Bradley Gay led the Mavericks with 17 points, while Bo Ingram added 12, LaMarcus Reed netted 11 and Brandon Edwards came off the bench to score 10.
The two teams began the game exchanging leads five times. Johnson scored four points and Travis Jones nailed a three-point shot from the right wing to give the Bobcats an early 7-6 lead.
After Rios also hit a three-pointer to give Texas State its last lead in the opening period at 11-10, UTA scored five straight points when Ingram made a tip-in, Reed canned a jumper in the paint and Cameron Catlett added a free throw.
After Rios nailed his second trey, the Mavericks used a 17-4 run to open up a 32-21 cushion and went on to out-score the Bobcats 7-4 during the rest of the first half to take a 39-25 lead into intermission.
Following intermission, Texas State got back into contention very quickly as the Bobcats outscored the Mavericks 9-0 in the first four minutes of the second half to close to within 39-34.
After Gay made with a pair of free throws for the Mavericks, Rios and Jones made two consecutive jumpers and Bishop added a pair of free throws to pull the Bobcats back to within 41-40 with 14:38 left to play.
The Mavericks tried to hold off Texas State as they scored four straight points with a pair of free throws and a lay-up by Ingram.
But, Texas State turned up its defensive pressure and scored seven consecutive points off of three steals to take a 47-45 lead with 12:23 left to play. The first two points came on pair of free throws by Tony Bishop. Then, Ryan White hit Rios for a 10-foot jumper on the right baseline. Rios returned the favor as he passed ahead to White for a three-point shot to give the Bobcats the lead. .
Texas State would go on to lead by as many as 15 points twice in the final 7:11 of the game. The first 15-point lead came when Travis Jones hit a pair of free throws to cap off a 15-2 run that made the score 64-49.
The run began with Johnson making four of his six free throws, and J.B. Conley scoring six straight points on a trey from the top of the key and an old-fashioned three-point play with a lay-up and a free throw. Jones also scored on a lay-up before making his free throws.
After Texas State led 71-56, the Mavericks tried to climb back into contention twice. First, Bradley Gay made a pair of free throws and Armani Williams nailed a three-point shot to pull UTA to within 10.
But, the Bobcats answered when White made a wrap-around pass to Bishop for a lay-up and Rios drove the length of the floor for another lay-up to make the score 75-61 with 2:37 left to play.
After White scored a lay-up, the Mavericks scored seven straight points to pull to within 77-70 with 52 seconds left to play. First, Williams nailed another three-pointer, and Brandon Edwards scored on a dunk shot and Shaqui White-Miller made a lay-up off a turnover.
The Bobcats halted the rally when Uriel Segura made a pair of free throws with 42 seconds left to give Texas State a 79-70 lead. Edwards hit one of his two free throws with 30 seconds left for the final point in the game.
The win improves Texas State's overall record to 12-12 and 7-3 in Southland Conference play. UTA fell to 11-12 overall and the Mavericks are 5-5 against Southland Conference play. The Bobcats retained sole possession of first place in the SLC's Western Division with the victory. The 7-3 SLC record is Texas State's best start in conference play since 1998-99 when the Bobcats also opened their SLC slate with a 7-3 record.
Texas State travels to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Tuesday night. The game can be heard throughout the San Marcos area on KTSW (89.9 FM) or on the internet through www.txstatebobcats.com.
