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  • Four Sam Houston fans brought a lot of cheer and support for the men’s basketball team in New Orleans Thursday afternoon. The Bearkats gave an incredible performance, but fell short in their bid to upset the 19th-ranked Baylor Bears. A large contingent of Sam Houston fans made the trek to New Orleans to support the Bearkats. The Kats fell 68-59 to Baylor. DJ Shafer

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March 18, 2010

Bearkats take game down to the wire

By Cody Stark Assistant Sports Editor

HUNTSVILLE — For 37 minutes, Sam Houston State was on the verge of becoming the Cinderella of the Dance.

The 14th-seeded Bearkats stood their ground against 19th-ranked Baylor in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Thursday afternoon at New Orleans Arena. But with the game in the balance, Sam Houston just couldn’t get any shots to fall in a 68-59 loss to the Bears.

The game was a lot closer than the final score. Senior point guard Ashton Mitchell, playing in front of his hometown, delivered a highlight reel layup that featured a fake behind-the-back pass to knot the contest at 55 with 3:48 remaining in the game.

Baylor guard LaceDarius Dunn, who was silent for most of the game, finally caught fire down the stretch and scored eight points in the final two minutes to lift Baylor (26-7) to its first NCAA tournament win in 60 years.

But as much as it stung to be so close and come up short, the loss doesn’t tarnish the remarkable season that Sam Houston State had which featured a Southland Conference regular-season and tournament championship as well as just the second NCAA tournament appearance in school history.

It was a fitting send off to Mitchell and fellow seniors Preston Brown, Corey Allmond and Arthur Zulu.

“They represented our university in the classroom, on and off the court, the example that they set, I’m proud of them,” SHSU head coach Bob Marlin said. “All of those seniors have driven the bus on different occasions. From Arthur Zulu to Preston Brown, to Corey Allmond to Ashton Mitchell. We wouldn’t be here without any of them.”

With a nice Sam Houston State crowd in attendance, the Bearkats jumped on the third-seeded Bears early, taking a 10-3 lead. Baylor eventually got closer and the game was relatively tight most of the way, as neither team could get rolling offensively.

Sam Houston might have opened the game up in the first half if a few more of the Bearkats’ 16 3-point attempts had fallen, but it was one of those days when the rim seemed a little smaller than usual.

Still, SHSU put a huge scare into the Bears, who are a popular pick to make a deep run in the tournament.

“It was good to come out and give it everything we had and have a chance to win,” said Mitchell who is from New Orleans. “We accomplished so much this season and this game can not take that away from us. We all wanted to win. We had the perfect game plan. It just came down to us not knocking down shots.”

The run might be over for the seniors, but the returning guys got a taste of what it is like to play on college basketball’s biggest stage and come close to winning.

Juniors Gilberto Clavell, Josten Crow, Lance Pevehouse, sophomores Antuan Bootle, Drae Murray and Marco Cooper and freshman Aaron Thompson and Kelly Lawson have a good chance to get the Bearkats back to the NCAA tournament next season.

“It was a good experience and March Madness is something I have always wanted to play in,” Murray said. “It’s just bad that we lost in the first round. I thought we fought hard and we are going to work on some things to get back here next year.”

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