Playing for the fourth time in eight days, Arkansas State's limited roster seemingly ran out of gas on Saturday afternoon.
Sean Gardner scored a career-high 26 points and Devin Carter had 19, but ASU got off to another slow start and couldn't climb completely back in a 78-68 loss to Texas State in San Marcos, Texas.
ASU trailed by as much as 31-17 in the first half, and got as close as 56-55 after a Gardner three-pointer with 8:59 left in the game. Texas State's Ethan Montalvo answered with a three-pointer to spark a string of seven consecutive points to make it 66-55 and ASU never got closer than eight while not making a field goal in the final 2:32.
Two days after allowing Texas-Arlington 15 three-pointers in a loss, ASU let Texas State make 9 of 15 three-pointers, with many coming on second chances. Texas State held a 38-28 rebounding edge and scored 14 second-chance points.
"That's the game," ASU Coach John Brady said in a postgame radio interview. "... There were times where we played really good defense not once, but twice, and the third time they hit a three."
ASU (9-10, 5-3) ended the game a bit more thin than usual, too. Already down to eight scholarship players, Brady said starting guard Donte Thomas missed the final 15 minutes because of a pulled hamstring and reserve guard Frederic Dure "thinks he broke his rib." Thomas, who has started every game, scored 8 points in 24 minutes, while Dure scored 2 points in 16 minutes.
"We're down to about six guys and it's our fourth game in eight days and we're a little winded and tired," Brady said.
Similar to Thursday's loss in Arlington, Texas, ASU fell into an early hole. The Red Wolves missed their first four shots and were 2 of 12 from the field when they trailed 18-6 about nine minutes into the game. ASU got within 18-11 at one point before trailing 38-26 at halftime.
Cameron Naylor, who was averaging 8.1 points, led Texas State with 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting with 9 rebounds. Montalvo finished with 15 points on 5 of 7 threes and Kavin Gilder-Tilbury had 17.
Anthony Livingston finished with 11 points and seven rebounds for ASU, which fell into a tie for third place in the Sun Belt and will host Georgia State on Thursday to start a four-game homestand.
Sports on 01/24/2016