Senior Reger Dowell hits a three, and then watch the final minute of the game as Troy answers to tie, Reger hits another three to win:

Here’s video of the final minute or so:

That’s the exciting part. The first half of the game was sloppy. Very sloppy. Lots of turnovers, and in fact the score was still 12-8 about thirteen minutes into the game. UTA was having trouble on the boards against what seemed like a less-athletic, similar-sized team. I was really beginning to think that the first team to 30 might take home a win. But the second half featured more scoring, Troy really trying to get into the paint but the Mavs defense was good enough to help get the win on a night when both teams had bad shooting nights.

For what it’s worth, a new co-worker (K-State graduate, lived in Kansas most of his life but had spent some time in DFW in the 80s while his wife went to school here) wanted to check out our new arena and couldn’t say enough good things about it. Even though the action on the court was a bit underwhelming at times, the last-minute win and overall energy in the arena most of the night really impressed him and wants to go to the rest of the games this season. As did the incredible buildings/dorms/parking garages/restaurants/etc. in the College Park district. So that was pretty cool. Not sure Texas Hall would have gotten the same reaction…

The crowd of about 2200 (not bad for a weeknight against a new conference opponent in freezing weather) was really into it most of the night, and it appears the arena looked great on TV. (The Sun Belt conference website has a link to the entire game on their website in the videos section)

Next up: South Alabama (7-12, 1-5) tonight, definitely another chance for a win. But as we’re learning, there were few easy wins in the WAC and even fewer still so in the Sun Belt. That would will make us 3-2 and 8-9 on the season.

The Shorthorn game story
Star Telegram South Alabama game preview
UTA Athletics preview
South Alabama Athletics game previewAL.com game preview (with video)
Another AL.com game preview story