SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Southeastern Louisiana's Daryl Cohen scored 10 of his team-high 15 points in the second half as the Lions shot a blistering 67 percent in the final 20 minutes and rallied past Texas-San Antonio, 64-57, in a Southland Conference game Thursday at the UTSA Convocation Center.
Quennell Green added 13 points for Southeastern (15-8, 7-3 SLC), which finished 24-for-44 (54.5 percent) from the floor and overcame a 25-21 deficit at halftime. UTSA, which dropped its fifth straight game to the Lions, fell to 6-16 overall and 2-7 in the SLC.
Southeastern, which moved into a first-place tie with Northwestern State in the SLC East Division, went 14-for-21 from the floor and outscored UTSA, 43-32, in the second half. After going 1-for-9 from behind the 3-point line, the Lions were 6-for-9 in the final 20 minutes with Cohen draining three of his four 3-pointers in that span.
"We hit some timely shots in the second half and gutted it out," Southeastern head coach Jim Yarbrough said. "We were out of synch on offense in the first half, but got some good looks at the basket and regained our rhythm.
"Daryl Cohen, Quennell Green and Kevyn Green all hit big shots for us in the second half, and to score 43 points in the second half against a good defensive team like UTSA was impressive."
UTSA led 31-26 after a layup by Kurt Attaway with 16:44 remaining in the game, but the Roadrunners would not score for the next four minutes as Southeastern went on a 13-0 run to take the lead for good.
Cohen, the SLC's third-leading scorer entering the game, started the run with a 3-pointer before Tavaris Nance tied the contest with a layup at the 15:49 mark. Quennell Green scored the next five points for the Lions on a 3-pointer and layup to put Southeastern ahead, 36-31, and Cohen added another 3-pointer with 13:08 left for a 39-31 advantage.
The Lions took their biggest lead of the game, 51-41, on a 3-pointer by Kevyn Green with 8:33 remaining and UTSA never got closer than three points the rest of the game. Keith Spencer's tip-in off a Melvin Smith miss cut the deficit to 54-51 with 3:00 left, but Southeastern responded with buckets by Quennell Green and Polite to put the Lions ahead, 58-51, with 1:27 remaining.
Smith scored 15 points to lead three players in double figures for UTSA, which went 8-for-27 (29.6 percent) in the second half and finished 18-for-45 (40 percent) for the game. Spencer recorded a double-double for the Roadrunners with 14 points and 11 rebounds while Attaway chipped in with 10 points and five assists.
Southeastern will return to action on Saturday as it faces SLC newcomer and West leader Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at noon at the American Bank Center.
SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA (15-8, 7-3 SLC)
Cohen 5-11 1-2 15; Q. Green 6-9 0-1 13; Polite 4-8 1-2 9; Cyprien 2-2 1-1 6; Nicks 1-1 4-4 6; K. Green 2-3 0-0 5; Nance 2-2 0-1 4; Bryant 1-7 2-4 4; Sullivan 1-1 0-1 2; Cummings 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-44 9-16 64.
TEXAS-SAN ANTONIO (6-16, 2-7 SLC)
Smith 6-18 2-4 15; Spencer 5-8 4-7 14; Attaway 3-6 4-5 10; Allen 2-5 4-4 9; Francis 2-6 5-6 9; Otis 0-0 0-0 0; Reynolds 0-1 0-0 0; Williams 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 18-45 19-26 57.
Halftime - UTSA 25, SLU 21. 3-point goals - SLU 7-18 (Cohen 4-9; Cyprien 1-1; K. Green 1-2; Q. Green 1-3; Bryant 0-3), UTSA 2-9 (Smith 1-3; Allen 1-3; Attaway 0-2; Williams 0-1). Fouled out - Polite. Rebounds - SLU 23 (Polite 5), UTSA 30 (Spencer 11). Assists - SLU 14 (Bryant 4), UTSA 9 (Attaway 5). Technical fouls - None. Total Fouls - SLU 22, UTSA 17. A - 934.
