Say goodbye to 2010! In their first game in three weeks, the Patriots of UT-Tyler showed just how rusty they were by shooting an abysmal 9/30 from three point range at Strahan Coliseum on Friday afternoon en route to their 21-point loss to Texas State men's basketball.
The new look Bobcats, now without Kentucky transfer A.J. Stewart, looked like a team that was willing to share the basketball and get each other involved - maybe a little too much at times, as evident by their 21 time outs. But still, you'd rather be too sharing than selfish. Now with only one more game left until conference play, they could not pick a better time to get it together.
However, the story of the game was not so perfect. The contest started off with sloppy play by both teams, a total of six turnovers (three for each team) in the first five minutes, and a barrage of three point jumpers by both squads. It was a very back-and-forth basketball game to start off, but the ‘Cats eventually took the reigns due to strong play by Cameron Johnson and Eddie Rios as they combined for 19 first half points. Texas State led 36 to 24 at the midway mark and they did not show any signs of slowing down.
That was until the Patriots opened up the second half shooting 5-6 from the field and got the lead down to as low as five. Now unlike the Texas State team we have become accustomed to this year, they did not give in and let the Patriots get the best of them. Instead, they called a timeout, kept the same lineup and pulled it together. Earlier in the season, this team would have caved in and let UT-Tyler take over, but not on this day. The ‘Cats kept moving the ball around and played solid defense that kept them on top and they never allowed the Patriots to take the lead Friday afternoon.
The bobcats went out of 2010 with a bang, and with Friday’s win, Texas State improved their record to 4-9 and dropped UT-Tyler to 4-7. Cameron Johnson finished with 18 points and seven rebounds and Eddie Rios netted 16 points. Tony “slim” Bishop’s day ended with eleven points and nine rebounds.
Senior center Jonathan Sloan came down awkwardly with just under 15 seconds left in the game. His status is unknown, but it would make things just that much tougher on this Texas State squad if he cannot rejoin the team. The guys will be back in action Tuesday, Jan. 4 for a re-match with UT-Pan American, a team they already took care of earlier in the season. Tip off is set for 7:00 p.m. and KTSW will have pregame coverage starting at 6:45 on 89.9 FM and ktsw.net
Robert Fisher, KTSW Assistant Sports Director
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