College basketball: UTPB men fall to Abilene Christian

Getting blown out hurts

Getting caught from behind hurts a lot worse.

Abilene Christian came back from a late deficit to beat the UTPB men's basketball team, 89-85, on Friday night at the Falcon Dome.

UTPB (2-3) was coming off of its worst loss of the season, a 100-68 drubbing at the hands of Angelo State on Saturday.

Losing the lead against the Wildcats (2-2) might be a little harder to forget.

"On Saturday we were losing by a lot," UTPB forward Rob Harris said. "This time we were up, and they came back, so this one hurts a lot worse."

The Falcons came out fast to start the game.

Behind the play of Harris, who scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the first half alone, UTPB raced out to a 51-44 halftime lead.

Against Angelo State Harris only made 1 of 12 shots and scored six points.

He wanted to put that game behind him as quickly as possible.

"I tried to bounce back with fire," Harris said. "I wanted to play better for my team."

Harris shouldn't fault himself for the loss.

Abilene Christian never found an answer for Harris, who scored 36 points, grabbed 14 rebounds, blocked three shots and made 17-of-19 shots from the field.

Harris' play allowed UTPB to stake an 83-76 lead after Justin Bailey, who finished with 16 points, made a layup with 3:55 left in the game.

But as the game wore on, the Wildcats started shifting their defense to take Harris away, and Dejan Sencanski kept Abilene Christian close with 26 points and 10 rebounds.

"Abilene Christian did a good job of hanging in there," UTPB head coach Randy Lee said. "They were down a few times and bounced back.

The Wildcats' Cameron Holson answered Bailey's layup with a three-point play, but UTPB held onto its 4-point lead for the next minute.

That's when Kevin White started making plays.

A backup guard for the Wildcats, White ended a fast break with a layup to pull Abilene Christian within two, 83-81, then made a steal a minute later that allowed Dustin Heiman to tie the score at 83.

After a pair of missed UTPB shots by Bailey, White nailed a 3-pointer from the left corner to put Abilene Christian in front, 86-83.

UTPB never came back.

Most of the Falcons players came out of the locker room slowly. Three losses in four days can take the bounce out of a basketball player's step.

But Lee doesn't think his team is reeling right now.
They simply needed to make more plays down the stretch on Monday night.

UTPB only made 7-of-15 free throws.

"If we make a few more free throws tonight, things might be different," Lee said. "And we need to play better defensively and box out down the stretch."  

>> Abilene Christian 89, UTPB 85 

Abilene Christian (2-2)

Dejan Sencanski 11-14 2-4 26, Camero Holson 5-10 6-8 17, Kendrick Johnson 1-3 0-0 2, Dustin Heiman 6-12 2-2 16, Dante Adams 4-11 0-0 10, Kevin White 3-6 1-1 8, Marko Nikolic 0-3 0-0 0, Milos Klimovic 3-8 2-3 8, Ean Wagner 1-3 0-0 2, Riley Lambert 0-0 0-0 0. Team Totals 34-70 14-18 85. 

UTPB (2-3)

Keenan Gay 1-2 2-3 4, Rob Harris 17-19 1-3 36, Andy Spears 0-2 0-0 0, Quintan Lipkins 4-7 0-0 9, Justin Bailey 7-18 0-1 16, Alen Hardy 3-6 4-8 10, Jabari Caldwell 0-0 0-0 0, Luther Thomas 0-3 0-1 0, Charles Harper 5-12 0-0 10. Team Totals 37-69 7-15 85. 

Halftime - UTPB 51, ACU 44. 3-point field goals - ACU 7-16 (Adams 2-6, Heiman 2-3, White 1-3, Holson 1-1, Sencanski 1-1, Klimovic 0-1, Wagner 0-1), UTPB 4-15 (Bailey 2-9, Harris 1-1, Lipkins 1-2, Hardy 0-1, Thomas 0-1, Harper 0-1). Total fouls - ACU 18, UTPB 18. Fouled out - Lipkins. Technical fouls - None. Rebounds - ACU 33 (Sencanski 10), UTPB 41 (Harris 14). Assists - ACU 21 (Heiman 7), UTPB 20 (Harper 7).