By Tyler Mayforth
Daily Record Sports
San Marcos — Texas State didn’t care that Sam Houston State only had one loss in the Southland Conference.
The Bobcats also understood the Bearkats already wrapped up the top seed in the conference tournament. But they weren’t about to let Sam Houston get to Katy unscathed.
Texas State, spurred by five players who scored double-digit points, picked up its third consecutive win after handing the Bearkats a 101-97 overtime loss Saturday afternoon at Strahan Coliseum.
“When we play together, we’re almost unstoppable,” Bobcats senior forward John Rybak said. “There are very few teams that can keep up with us when we move the ball as fast as we do and when we get up and down the floor as well as we do.”
Texas State tried to run Sam Houston into the ground early, but the Bearkats kept pace. The Bobcats opened up a seven-point lead less than five minutes after the opening tip but Sam Houston tied it six minutes later.
While Texas State used seniors John Rybak and Emmanuel Bidias a Moute, as rocks, the Bearkats relied heavily on Gilberto Clavell. Rybak and Moute combined for 12 points in the first half, but Clavell poured in 15 to lead all scorers and gave Sam Houston a six-point advantage going into halftime.
In the second half, Rybak and Moute did their best to absorb the blows Clavell fired at the Bobcats. Whenever Clavell hit a big jumper or threw down a thunderous dunk, it was either Rybak knocking down a deep 3-pointer or Moute fighting for a tough inside lay-up to kill any hope of momentum.
“The great thing was that the seniors said, ‘If you’re not going to do it for me, we’ll carry it ourselves,’” Texas State head coach Doug Davalos said. “You have to make some big shots and our guys stepped up and made big shots.”
No shots in the second half were bigger than the pair of 3-pointers Rybak canned on back-to-back possessions to not only cut into Sam Houston’s lead, but to give the Bobcats the edge.
Rybak scored 19 of his team-high 21 points after halftime, bouncing back after battling through some mid-season shooting woes.
“John is one of my favorite all-time players to coach,” Davalos said. “He brings it every day in practice, his attitude is tremendous when things are bad or good and I’m glad that he went out with his fingerprints all over this win.”
Rybak had an opportunity to end the game with 0.4 seconds remaining with two free throws and Texas State down 87-86. After a series of timeouts by each team, Rybak knocked down the first but missed the second.
The Bobcats weren’t deflated by Rybak’s miss, but energized. Texas State had been in two overtime games before (1-1) and wasn’t about to lose on senior day.
“We had all the confidence in the world going into overtime,” Rybak said. “We did the same thing at Lamar (a 97-92 win). Cam (Cameron Johnson), down the stretch, hit one of two to send us to overtime and we handled business in a similar way.”
The Bobcats scored the opening basket of the extra period, a lay-up by Rybak, and then put on the burners.
Texas State evened its record at 15-15 and wrapped up the regular season on a roll, winning three consecutive games.
The Bobcats only hope they can parlay this momentum into three wins in Katy.
