If you happened to follow the Bobcats during football season, then Oct. 10 still haunts you to this day. Texas State choked away a 24-point lead in the fourth quarter while the Lions stormed back to eventually win 51-50.
“Obviously there were some things that went wrong today,” Bobcats head football coach Brad Wright said Oct. 10. “I'm not exactly sure what happened. It's disheartening and obviously they made plays when they needed to.”
And if you are one of the few people who support the Bobcats' men's basketball team, then you saw Southeastern do the same thing Wednesday night. The Lions methodically cut into Texas State's 17-point halftime advantage in the quarterfinal of the Southland Conference tournament and ended the Bobcats' season in overtime.“If I had the answer, we wouldn’t have lost right now,” Texas State junior guard Ryan White said following Wednesday night's 79-78 loss. “I really can’t tell you. We would have won the game if I knew that answer (about how we let the lead slip).”
The answer was simple as to how the Bobcats let their lead slip: They stopped executing.
Texas State quit doing what staked it to a comfortable lead Wednesday night. The Bobcats didn't keep pressure on the Southeastern's jump shooters and it allowed the Lions to knock down 3-pointer after 3-pointer in the first five minutes after halftime.
Once Texas State's defense struggled, its offense followed and Southeastern went on a 19-7 run to open the second half.
"Basketball is a transition game. You can’t say our defense gave up four sacks. It’s a flowing game," Bobcats head coach Doug Davalos said. "When you don’t make stops, it leads to some complacency on offense. We got out and run and got some transition baskets and then when we turn the ball over, we had some problems on defense.
"That first half of team defense was as good as I’ve seen at Texas State and that’s what frustrates me that when you see a half of defense like we played and then seeing one of the worst halves of defense we played this year. It’s frustrating."
Even though Texas State didn't deserve to win, the squad nearly backed into it.
Cameron Johnson did everything but stand on his head to keep the Bobcats in the game and even gave Texas State three different leads in the final two minutes. He scored 15 of his game-high 23 points in the second half and overtime.
Johnson had an opportunity to win the game in overtime, but his wide-open jumper with 2.3 seconds remaining clanged off the upright — oops, I mean rim.
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