UTA men knocked out of Sun Belt tourney by Texas State, probably ending NCAA hopes
The UT Arlington men saw their NCAA Tournament quest probably end after they were upset 83-62 by the Texas State Bobcats on Saturday afternoon in the Sun Belt Tournament basketball semifinals at Lakefront Arena.
Texas State (20-12) will play sixth-seeded Troy (21-14), a 74-63 winner over Georgia State, in the conference title game Sunday for the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
UTA (25-8) will hope for an unlikely at-large bid on NCAA Selection Sunday.
As Sun Belt regular-season champion, UTA is guaranteed a berth in the NIT.
The Mavericks played Saturday without veteran starter Jalen Jones, who suffered a fractured thumb late in UTA’s Sun Belt quarterfinals victory over Coastal Carolina on Friday.
No. 4 seed Texas State went on an 8-0 run to take its first lead, 28-26, with about 5 1/2 minutes left in the first half and never trailed again. Big man Immanuel King helped sparked the surge with 11 first-half points on the way to a career-high 13. The Bobcats’ leading scorer, Kavin Gilder-Tilbury, was on the bench with two fouls.
Texas State led 41-32 at halftime, but UTA kept within range until the Bobcats went on a 9-0 scoring run with about 10 minutes to play. Texas State opened a 59-46 lead with 6:18 left on Bobby Conley’s 3-point basket.
UTA point guard Erick Neal led the Mavericks with 21 points. UTA forward Kevin Hervey, the Sun Belt Player of the Year, was held to four points at halftime and finished with 10.
UTA coach Scott Cross said the lesson learned Saturday was “when we were down, we were struggling and we kind of came apart as a team. We didn’t come together, we didn’t trust each other, we tried to do it individually.”
He added, “Our guys panicked a little bit, ran out of timeouts basically, so there were no more adjustments. At that point, we were down 15 or 16 with four minutes to go and there is not a whole lot you can do.”
Texas State went up by double figures for good with 7 1/2 minutes left in the game and would lead by as many as 23.
Nijal Pearson had 14 points, Gilder-Tilbury had 12 and Nedeljko Prijovic 11 for the Bobcats. Texas State shot 53 percent.
The Bobcats reached 20 victories for the first time since 1993-94 when they had 25 wins and went to the NCAA Tournament. They will be playing in their first Sun Belt final.
The Bobcats trailed by four when they went on a 19-6 run to end the first half, including seven points each from King and Prijovic, to lead 41-32.
TEXAS STATE (20-12): King 6-8 1-4 13, Gilder-Tilbury 3-8 4-5 12, Pearson 4-8 6-8 14, Black 2-5 4-4 8, Conley 5-7 2-2 16, Starwood 0-0 1-2 1, Prijovic 3-6 5-5 11, Josephs 1-1 0-0 3, Blount 1-3 0-0 3, Davis 1-3 0-0 2, Julien 0-0 0-0 0, Duncan 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-49 23-30 83.
TEXAS-ARLINGTON (25-8): Hervey 4-12 1-2 10, Bilbao 3-8 2-2 8, Charles 1-4 2-3 5, Wilson 1-6 5-6 7, Neal 8-17 0-0 21, Pope 2-4 0-0 4, Harris 1-1 0-0 2, Muirhead 1-1 0-0 3, Kabadyundi 0-0 0-0 0, Hawkins 1-3 0-0 2, Bryant 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-56 10-13 62.
Halftime—Texas State 41-32. 3-Point Goals—Texas State 8-20 (Conley 4-5, Gilder-Tilbury 2-5, Josephs 1-1, Blount 1-3, Black 0-1, Prijovic 0-1, Pearson 0-2, Davis 0-2), Texas-Arlington 8-26 (Neal 5-12, Muirhead 1-1, Charles 1-3, Hervey 1-5, Pope 0-1, Hawkins 0-1, Wilson 0-3). Fouled Out—Bilbao. Rebounds—Texas State 25 (Gilder-Tilbury 6), Texas-Arlington 28 (Hervey 10). Assists—Texas State 18 (Black 6), Texas-Arlington 9 (Neal 4). Total Fouls—Texas State 14, Texas-Arlington 22.
This story was originally published March 11, 2017 at 1:41 PM with the headline "UTA men knocked out of Sun Belt tourney by Texas State, probably ending NCAA hopes."