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January 23, 2010

Bearkats, barely

After letting 18-point lead slip away, SHSU makes enough plays down stretch to win

By Cody Stark

ARLINGTON — The Bearkats tried like crazy to give away Saturday’s game.

They blew a double-digit lead, missed free throws and turned the ball over at crunch time. The good news for Sam Houston State is, that wasn’t enough to help the Mavericks steal the game.

Junior forward Gilberto Clavell hit one of two free throws with four seconds left and Texas-Arlington senior Marquez Haynes couldn’t get a shot off at the buzzer as the Bearkats held on for a 67-64 victory at Texas Hall.

Clavell led Sam Houston (4-0 in Southland Conference, 12-5 overall) with 25 points and 10 boards. Senior guard Corey Allmond added 17 points on 5-of-13 shooting from behind the arc.

“We’ll take it and get out of town,” Bearkats coach Bob Marlin said. “The thing I’m proud about is that in the second half everything that could go wrong did and we were able to hang in there and make the plays to win. I told the team afterward that we never gave up the lead and they never tied the game.”

The Bearkats got a pair 3s from Allmond and senior point guard Ashton Mitchell to grab an 18-point lead at 45-27 two minutes into the second half. But Sam Houston missed some wide-open looks and couldn’t push the lead past 20.

That kept the Mavericks (1-4 in SLC, 8-9) in the contest. UTA went on a 12-2 run thanks to seven points by Haynes, who scored 23, to claw back in it.

The Bearkats answered with a 3 from Allmond and an old-fashioned three-point play by Clavell, which came on a two-handed dunk. That put Sam Houston up 57-42, but once again, the Mavs came storming back.

The Kats got cold and the shots wouldn’t fall. UTA pulled to within two at 64-62 when J.D. Davis hit a pair of free throws with 51 seconds left in the game.

Sam Houston went just 8 of 25 (32 percent) from the field after the break.

“Sometimes that happens. You knock in a few, then you miss a few,” Allmond said. “We did play good defense. We held them to less than 40 percent (shooting). That was one of our goals. Whether we are making shots or not, if we play good defense, the offense will come.”

During their previous three wins, the Bearkats did a good job of taking care of the ball and knocking down free throws. That wasn’t the case Saturday.

Sam Houston went 11 of 21 at the stripe and turned the ball over 17 times. The final turnover almost cost the Bearkats the game.

Senior guard Josten Crow ended SHSU’s seven-minute field-goal drought down the stretch when he drove the lane and laid the ball off the glass to put SHSU up 66-62. With 17 seconds left, it appeared that Crow’s basket would seal it.

But as the Bearkats know, anything can happen at Texas Hall.

Haynes answered with a pair of free throws to cut the lead to two. It looked like all Sam Houston needed to do was get the ball in bounds, then knock in a pair of free throws with 11 seconds left.

But freshman Drae Murray couldn’t get the ball down the court to Crow and the ball sailed out of bounds, giving the Mavs a shot at the win or a tie on their own end of the court.

UTA got the ball to senior guard Brandon Long in the corner, but his shot didn’t fall and Clavell pulled down the rebound. The Mavs were forced to foul and Clavell hit a free throw to seal it.

“When (Long) shot the ball, I was like, ‘No way. No way.’ It looked like it was going in,” Clavell said. “When it missed, I knew I needed to jump as high as I can to get the rebound.”

The Kats return to Johnson Coliseum on Wednesday to battle Lamar at 7 p.m.

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