Interim head coach Terrence Johnson was not pleased with his players as they walked to the Strahan Arena locker room.
Texas State was trailing Incarnate Word, 34-32, at halftime of Saturday’s game. The Bobcats were shooting a higher field goal percentage, grabbing more boards and forcing more turnovers than the Cardinals but the hosts still found themselves at a deficit. The visitors shot 7-13 from behind the arc. The team’s leading scorer, sophomore guard Keaston Willis, had a game-high 12 points, all of them coming from 3-pointers.
Johnson was ready to light into his team during the break. His associate head coach, Bennie Seltzer, stopped him before entering the locker room.
“They need you to be positive,” Seltzer told him.
“It's really, really difficult trying to figure out exactly what the team needs and when they need it,” Johnson said. “To only be down two points and then feel like they haven't even begun to play the type of Bobcat basketball that we were accustomed to seeing in Strahan Arena, you know, I just think that they got they got together and said, ‘Hey, we're gonna try to do it Coach's way and just give maximum effort and see what happens.’ So I appreciate them and trust them.”
The change in messaging worked. Texas State held UIW to 2-11 from deep in the second half and edged out the Cardinals to take a 72-64 win.
Earlier in the week, the Bobcats (3-1) put up a disappointing performance in the second half of their game at Mississippi State. After being behind just 26-24 after the first half, Texas State let the game slip away and ended up losing 68-51.
Johnson said the team was a little lethargic in the practices that followed, though thought it was partially due to it being final exam season. But he was eager to see how the Bobcats would respond and who would step up against the Cardinals (1-3).
“This is the ultimate trap game. You know, you're sandwiched between an SEC team, and a Big 12 team, arguably one of the hottest teams in the country right now. So the biggest thing is, can we just focus on this opponent? And then after that, to me, it's about having tunnel vision -- you know, focus on the task at hand,” Johnson said. “And that's the biggest thing about these millennials is getting them to focus on exactly what's going on right now and where they are right now.”
One player that answered the challenge was Shelby Adams. The senior guard had just two first-half points but poured on another 12 early in the second half. Adams’ last field goal, a floater in the paint, put the Bobcats up 51-49. The maroon and gold never let go of the lead.
“I was just finding my spots,” Adams said. “And then Mason (Harrell) and Marlin (Davis), I feel like they did a great job of finding me within those spots, either with a dribble-drive or kind of penetrating and kicking it out to the corner or something like that. I believe one 3 I had at the top of the key, we called a play and (senior forward Quentin Scott) set a great screen for my guy and had me wide open. So things like that just helped me out.”
Other players found their offensive rhythms. Senior forward Isiah Small splashed a trey from the right corner. Junior forward Nighael Ceasar gobbled up offensive rebounds for putbacks. Harrell and Davis kept making smart plays.
The Bobcats remained sharp down the stretch to seal the 72-64 victory.
“That was probably like one of the first times that we had on-the-court adversity,” Adams said. “And we handled that, I feel like, great just because we were down, we weren’t playing good, missing shots and we didn't let that phase us. You know, we looked at it as a challenge and we look at challenges as like, you can either learn from them and get better or you can let them hold you down.”
Adams finished the evening with 15 points and six rebounds. Davis added 12 points, seven assists and two steals. Harrell and Ceasar chipped in another 10 points each. Small was two points shy of a double-double with eight points and 10 rebounds.
Johnson said he was happy to come out with a win in the “ultimate trap game” against the Cardinals as Texas State heads to Austin on Wednesday to take on No. 17 Texas (4-0). The interim head coach said he wants to see the team keep its identity against the Longhorns, something the Bobcats struggled to do against Mississippi State.
“We have to settle in and be ourselves,” Johnson said. “And then after that, we got to shrink the floor. I don't think we can overextend against those kind of guards and those bigs with that kind of length and athleticism. So we have to come up with a game plan that keeps us in the game for the duration.”
