Feb. 12, 2011
Final Stats
San Marcos, Tex. - As good as UT Arlington was in the first half, Texas State was even better in the final 20 minutes as they won its fourth consecutive game 79-71 Saturday afternoon.
Texas State (12-12, 7-3 Southland) outscored the Mavericks 54-32 in the second half to erase a 14-point UT Arlington halftime lead. The 54 points was the most UTA has allowed in any half this season.
"I'm extremely disappointed with the way we played in the second half," UTA head coach Scott Cross said. "We had a complete drop in intensity. They came out with a way more aggressiveness and got our post guys in foul trouble."
The Bobcats started the half on a 9-0 run before UT Arlington (11-12, 5-5 Southland) was able to stop that run with two free throws.
Ryan White then put Texas State in the lead for good with a three-pointer at 12:18 when the run reached 22-6. The Bobcats continued to build the lead to as many as 15 points and the Mavericks could get no closer than seven.
"We were two completely different teams obviously today," Cross said. "The game is easy to coach when your guys play with intensity but when they don't and you have to coach intensity instead of the game it makes it a different story and that is what happened today."
Eddie Rios led Texas State with 20 points while Cameron Johnson had 16 and Travis Jones 15. White finished with 11. Johnson added a team-high eight rebounds.
Bradley Gay led UTA with 17 points while Bo Ingram had 12, LaMarcus Reed added 11 and Brandon Edwards had 10 and a team-high eight rebounds.
The Bobcats shot 60% (15-of-25) in the second half and held UT Arlington to only three field goals in the first 12 minutes of the half.
The Mavericks finished the second half making only 9-of-26 (34.6%) with a majority of those coming after the game had been decided. UT Arlington had more free throws than field goals in the second half (12-9). Meanwhile Texas State made 21-of-27 from the line in the second half and finished the game making 24-of-33.
"We had a chance to be at the top of the league today and we didn't take advantage of the opportunity given to us with our first half," Cross added. "I think if we had just played hard the entire game we would have won but again that wasn't the case."
The Mavericks held a 39-25 halftime lead as they shot 56% from the field. They also scored 18 points in the paint and turned seven offensive rebounds into 13 second chance points. They only had one in the second half to finish the game with only 14.
Texas State also took advantage of 20 UTA turnovers, which they turned into 27 points.
The Mavericks now find themselves two games behind Texas State in the race for the West Division title. UTA returns to Texas Hall Wednesday to face Stephen F. Austin. Tipoff is at 7 p.m.
