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Texas State (14-12, 7-6 Sun Belt) 68, UT Arlington (16-10, 7-6 Sun Belt) 70 (OT)
Saturday, February 10, 2018
College Park Center o Arlington, Texas

POSTGAME QUOTES

UTA Head Coach Scott Cross
Thoughts on the overtime win vs Texas State: "We knew it was going to be a tough, hard fought game. Texas State did a great job of attacking us, making us play through the shot clock. I don't know how many shots they hit inside the last 3 seconds of the shot clock. They had an opportunity to beat us with that lob and missed it. But, we needed one of these games. It was a huge win for us. Now we have a chance to compete for a top four seed in the conference tournament and a first round bye. If we would've let that game slip we probably wouldn't have a chance at it. Kevin Hervey was tremendous for us, when he's aggressive and getting to the basket he's as good as anyone I've ever seen. And he was having success with that tonight. Our guys were doing a good job of getting him the ball and we got some big stops down the stretch. Very thankful we came away with this win."

The one-two punch of Kevin Hervey and Erick Neal: "When you're playing teams that are so tough defensively you kind of have to lean on guys like Kevin and Erick (Neal). Try to make teams pay against those two in the pick and roll. You can kind of do that with Johnny Hamilton and have him slip to the basket. But when you have two really talented guys you want to try and keep the ball in their hands. You can't just go with those two guys every single game all the time but in a game like this you lean on those guys."

Thoughts on the consistent focus his team had vs Texas State: "It was really good. There were probably two or three times in the second half where I felt like the intensity dropped. We've had times where it has dropped and it stayed like that for the rest of the game. We were able to withstand their runs and come back from them with more intensity. That's what a veteran basketball team is supposed to do and we've done that over the last three games. Hopefully a game like this will carry us for the rest of the season and into the conference tournament."

UTA Senior Forward Kevin Hervey
On the overtime win vs Texas State: "It's big, I can't remember the last time we won three straight games. We played a very tough team and our coaches challenged us before the game to be as tough as we possibly could be. Texas State pushed us for all 45 minutes, but we came out as the tougher team. I'm proud of my guys for doing that."

On becoming the leading rebounder in UTA history: "I hadn't been very aggressive rebounding early in the game. I wasn't really getting on the offensive boards but I got a few lucky chances tonight off a tip or two. I'm appreciative of the accomplishment but I'm just looking on to the next game."

On winning 3 straight games: "We've just got to stay the course and stay focused. In the majority of our games we lose focus for 5 to 10 minutes in the second half. We somewhat went through that today but for the most part we stayed the course and kept our minds focused on being tough every possession. Because that's what our coaches preach to us."