UCO’s Dauntae Williams drives toward the lane against West Texas A&M in the first round of the Lone Star Conference on Wednesday. UCO was upset 80-79. Photo by Jeremy Enlow.
The men of UCO basketball had their trip to a Lone Star Conference Tournament title come to an end last week but they received a spot of good news to soften the blow.
The Bronchos learned on Sunday that they were selected to the NCAA Division II Men’s National Tournament.
UCO earned a six seed in the upcoming tournament that starts March 13.
Their bid for an LSC title in 2010, however, was cut short.
Facing a West Texas A&M team they had topped by 31 points in a Jan. 9 dismantling of the Buffs, UCO failed to match the early intensity brought by their underdog opponent, playing catch up throughout the 80-79 opening-round loss on Wednesday.
“We lost the game because of the first 10 minutes of the game,” UCO head coach Terry Evans said.
Those first 10 minutes included 13 straight WTAMU points that put the Bronchos in a double-digit hole they couldn’t even begin to chip away at until the three-minute mark in the first half.
The Bronchos seemed to be on their way to righting the ship when they pulled within 44-37 at halftime, but WTAMU responded with a 10-2 run to start the second half to bring the score to 54-39.
From there, UCO began to whittle away at the deficit, pulling within 58-56 on a Blake Livingston free throw, and even deadlocking with the Buffs at 60 on a transition jumper by Shane Carroll.
All seemed well, and order seemed returned when Eric Cazenave buried a three that gave the Bronchos their first lead of the game at 76-73.
But all was not well in Bartlesville, Okla., as the Buffs would score their final 11 points from the charity stripe, including a WTAMU free throw with just 1.8 seconds remaining that brought the score to its final margin at 80-79, sealing a Buff victory and UCO elimination.
“I’m proud of our guys for coming back like we did, but we didn’t play our game. You have to give WT credit. They played good defense and played hard the whole game. They were aggressive tonight and probably deserved to win,” Evans said.
If there was any one poison for the Bronchos, it was free throw shooting.
The Bronchos failed to take advantage of their opportunities at the line, converting on just 21 of their 38 attempts, just 55 percent compared to 73 percent for WTAMU.
Chris Rhymes led the Bronchos with 18 points on 6-7 shooting.
Livingston scored 14 points and snatched 5 rebounds. Carroll scored 12 points, and Cazenave added 10.
Dauntae Williams scored 12 points in addition to five rebounds, despite shooting just four of 14 from the field.
