San Marcos — Texas State prides itself on its depth.

The Bobcats routinely use 10 players per game in an effort to wear down opposing teams. Usually, it works.

Wednesday night, in Texas State’s 77-70 loss to Stephen F. Austin, it didn’t. The Bobcats’ reserves would have been better off sitting in the locker room during the game because they were practically non-existent against the Lumberjacks.

“When we play 10 against their 10, our six through 10 have to be better than their six through 10 because that’s what we work on. They don’t,” Texas State head coach Doug Davalos said. “Their six through 10 are playing defense against their starters every day at practice and our six through 10 get reps.

“Teams play more players against us, especially guys who aren’t used to playing and they’re whipping our tails.”

The Bobcats’ bench outscored SFA’s 28-26, but that’s expected when they go 10 deep. The Lumberjacks’ reserves, on the other hand, play sparingly due to their inexperience.

SFA graduated six players last year, including the 2009 Southland Conference Player of the Year Matt Kingsley, so the squad relies heavily on its returners — but that wasn’t the case against Texas State.

Lumberjacks guard Denzel Barnes, a transfer who averaged 10 minutes per game, played 26 Wednesday night and hit a momentum-swinging 3-pointer going into halftime. Orren Tims, a freshman who averaged eight minutes, saw 23 and was one of five players in double figures for SFA.

“These guys don’t play and they come in and it’s disheartening because you look at guys like Jordan Glenn — who’s a stud, Eric Bell — who is a really good point guard and they don’t do anything,” Davalos said. “Their bench — guys who don’t ever play, step up and play better than guys that play all the time for us.”

Only three players decided to show up for the Bobcats (Cameron Johnson, Emmanuel Bidias a Moute and Uriel Segura) and they were rewarded. Segura, who started in order to take some heat off Ryan White, scored 16 points, Johnson rebounded from a slow start to post another double-double (18 points and 12 boards) and Moute had a decent performance (15 points, six rebounds and two blocks).

Three Texas State players saw less than a minute of action in the second half (J.B. Conley, Dylan Hale and Jonathan Sloan) while three others were completely unproductive during their stints on the floor (John Bowman, John Rybak and Ryan White).

“Our six through 10 have played, led us in scoring and played minutes. They have to be better than the other team’s 6 through 10. That’s our philosophy,” Davalos said. “Nicholls and Stephen F. Austin, their benches have outplayed our bench. Guys who don’t usually play have outplayed us. It makes you scratch your head.”

The Bobcats have lost two consecutive games and are now 6-7 in the SLC. Texas State needs to win at least two of its next three to avoid either a bad seed in the SLC tournament or missing it all together.