Despite playing high intensity basketball for 40 minutes, the Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners out-ran the Colonels basketball team in overtime 83-79 in Southland Conference action last Saturday night in Stopher Gym.
Although the Colonels (5-10, 0-3 SLC) shot 52 percent from the field and had three players score double figures, the team ran out of gas in the end when it counted.
With three seconds left in the second half, Texas-San Antonio (6-10, 1-2 SLC) went up when Roadrunner Curt Attaway sunk a lay-up to make the score 69-67. On the next possession, sophomore forward Eric James sent the game into overtime when he connected on a lay-up after receiving a pass from Jason Wilkins.
In overtime Texas-San Antonio went on a 5-0 run and took a 78-77 lead with under 1:47 left to play in the game. After the Colonels tied the game 79-79 with 1:08 left in the game, a lay-up by Roadrunner Anthony Fuqua put Texas-San Antonio in the lead for good.
Ricky Blanton, Colonels head coach, said the loss to Texas-San Antonio is hard to swallow.
“It was a tough game to lose. It was unfortunate that anybody had to lose tonight’s game,” Blanton said. “These player’s played extremely tough the whole night. We will come back and continue to work and hopefully get things right.”
Another reason why the loss is hard to swallow for the Colonels was two controversial goaltending calls the referees missed in the last minute of overtime that favored Texas-San Antonio. On the first goaltending miss, a Texas-San Antonio player appeared to tip a shot by Colonels junior guard Willie Depron off the basketball rim. In the second, Fuqua tipped in a missed lay-up attempt by Attaway on the basketball rim.
“I saw offensive interference and goaltending on the other end; however, that is the way the ball bounces,” Blanton said. “We have to play through it, and I thought we did a good job playing through it. We just didn’t do it and came up short.”
Although Depron admitted the two plays were goaltending, he said the Colonels should have never been in that position.
“I guess everybody makes mistakes and we can’t blame it on the referees,” Depron said. “If we don’t put ourselves in that situation, it shouldn’t come down to that.”
The Colonels shot 43.8 percent from the field, 52 percent from the three-point line and 83 percent from the free-throw line.
Blanton said he was thrilled at the way the team shot from the three-point line. The 12 three-pointers by the Colonels were the most since 1990 against Southern when they made 14.
“They enjoy shooting in our gym. We shoot real good in Stopher Gym,” Blanton said.
Depron led the Colonels with 24 points and five assists. Wilkins scored 15 points, James scored 12, senior guard Markeith Brown scored eight and junior forward Dominique Geason and freshman guard Shaun King added six points apiece.
The Colonels return to action tonight in Stopher Gym against McNeese State (4-11, 0-4 SLC).
LAGINAPPE: The attendance Saturday against Texas-San Antonio was 879. After spending the first 15 days of 2004 on the road, the Colonels host five of their next eight games in Stopher Gym. The Colonels lead the all-time series against Texas-San Antonio 16-15, but have lost the last six to the Roadrunners.