By Tyler Mayforth
Daily Record Sports
San Marcos — Doug Davalos, Cameron Johnson and Ryan White walked into the postgame press conference with the look of three men ready to meet their fates at the gallows.
Southeastern Louisiana senior forward Patrick Sullivan had just sealed their fate with a game-winning free throw in overtime. Sullivan helped the Lions storm back from a 17-point deficit in the second half Wednesday night and his shot underscored the 79-78 victory.
Davalos, Johnson and White seemed as if they were seeking the nearest exit, because they wanted to be anywhere but in front of the small gathering of media.
Yet, the trio sat at the table and grudgingly tried to explain their late-game meltdown.
Davalos blamed himself for the loss and wasn’t ready to cast it off on his players.
“I told these guys, ‘Don’t beat yourself up. I take responsibility for this game,’” Davalos said.
Johnson had the weight of a missed last-second shot on his shoulders. Texas Sate got the look it wanted, but Johnson forced a wide-open shot at the buzzer.
“It was probably a little bit of nerves and rushing the shot a little bit, but either way, it was a good look,” Johnon said. “It was something I should have knocked down.”
And finally, White, with tears welling in his eyes, couldn’t explain what he felt or the game itself.
“If I had the answer (as to why we lost), we wouldn’t have lost right now,” White said. “I really can’t tell you. We would have won the game if I knew that answer.”
Even if White couldn’t muster up an explanation, it was easy to see why the Bobcats lost in the quarterfinal of the Southland Conference tournament.
1. Texas State didn’t stay aggressive with Sullivan.
In the first half, the Bobcats used Emmanuel Bidias a Moute to perfection. Moute, who is 25 pounds heavier than Sullivan, bodied the SLC’s leading shot blocker out of the paint. Whenever Sullivan flashed to the high post, Moute either push him beyond the 3-point arc or grabbed a fistful of jersey and jerked the 6-foot, 9-inch forward around. Davalos rarely used Moute after halftime, only playing the senior forward for nine minutes. Instead, Davalos went with the long-armed Tony Bishop and rail-thin Jonathan Sloan to try to slow down Sullivan. After Sullivan lit up both Bishop and Sloan, Davalos put Johnson on Sullivan and the Lions’ forward was limited.
2. With the exception of Bishop, Texas State didn’t get any production out of its other players, other than Johnson and White, in the second half.
While Bishop found it difficult to defend Sullivan, the junior transfer provided a spark off the bench when Johnson needed a breather. Bishop scored eight points in the second half and overtime but didn’t receive any help from his fellow reserves. Sloan, John Bowman and Dylan Hale combined for six points which were all scored by Sloan. J.B. Conley didn’t play a single minute but he was just as effective as Moute, John Rybak and Uriel Segura in the second half. Moute, Rybak and Segura only scored two points each in the final 25 minutes.
3. The Bobcats abandoned their bread-and-butter after the first half — the 3-point shot and solid 3-point defense.
Texas State canned seven 3-pointers in the first half and limited the league’s best 3-point shooting team to a measly 2-for-10 shooting. Southeastern opened it up in the second half when the Bobcats’ defenders slacked and drilled seven of its 10 attempts. Texas State, on the other hand, shot 10 but missed eight.
