TYLER, TX – By all accounts, it simply wasn't Scott Rodgers’ night Monday…until the Comets needed him the most.

Again.

With less than one second remaining on the clock, the UT Dallas senior shook off a night of frustration and converted a free throw that gave the 19th-ranked Comets their third straight heart-stopping American Southwest Conference victory – a 63-62 road win over the University of Texas at Tyler that also clinched the second straight outright East Division title. UTD had already wrapped up the top seed for the ASC tournament after the results of Saturday's league games.

Until the bizarre turn of events that put Rodgers in a position to win the game with 0.9 seconds on the clock, the UTD senior had managed just 4-of-12 shooting (thanks to some tenacious UTT defense), was 1-of-7 from beyond the 3-point line and had seen his first attempt at the game-winning free throw bounce off the front of the rim. It kind of made a weekend of fighting off the effects of food poisoning seem trivial.

But Rodgers was again in the right place at the right time for UTD when Tyler’s Dexter McMarian committed an ill-advised foul on Rodgers as he grabbed Neal Welch’s attempted buzzer-beater with less than a second left. With the crowd taking out its anger at the game officials, Rodgers stepped to the line after his first miss and gave the East Divison champion Comets the game-winning point.

It was the third straight, last second win that Rodgers had played a key role in for UTD.

“Scott was having a difficult night,” Coach Terry Butterfield said afterwards. “But he came through when we needed him most. Our kids are smart kids. Whatever the situation is late in the game, they know what it’s going to take to win and they try to get it done.”

The Comets (19-4, 16-2), who had already clinched their second straight ASC East Division crown prior to the game, rallied in the game’s final :31 seconds from a 62-59 deficit when Chris Barnes nailed his first second-half 3-pointer to tie the score. After a timeout with :21 left, the Patriots (13-10, 9-9) played for a final shot, taken by Welch with just a couple of seconds left.

Until the late game heroics, things weren’t exactly going well for the rest of the Comets either. Tyler’s defensive pressure held UTD to just 36 percent shooting for the night, and allowed just 6-of-22 shooting in the second half. UTD was charged with 15 turnovers, had two starters fighting foul trouble all night long and had hit just 4-of-22 3-pointers, the team’s bread-and-butter over the last half of the season.

UTD had fought its way out to a 38-32 halftime lead and moved out to a 10-point advantage (48-38) to start the second half. But Tyler came right back, going on a 13-0 run to take a 51-48 lead with 10:09 remaining.
Rodgers showed the first signs of rescuing UTD over the next few minutes, regaining the lead twice with a layup and a big 3-pointer. But Rodgers, Barnes and Curtis Davis all missed crucial free throws in the final minutes of a tight game, and the Patriots answered to take the late 62-59 lead. The Patriots, however, did not hit a successful field goal in the game’s final 3:42, thanks in no small part to the defensive effort of the Comets.

“I thought we did just enough defensively to get the job done,” Butterfield continued. “The ball is not going to go through every night, so you’ve got to defend. And, we weren’t the only ones. Tyler is a quick, strong , talented team and they got in our grills tonight.”

Barnes (22 points) and Davis (16 points, 8 rebounds) led UTD, but scored all but 10 of their points in the first half. Rodgers’ 10th point of the night gave the Comets their third straight nail-biting win.

“Somehow things have worked out for us late the last few games. Our kids are playing hard and finding a way to overcome a lot when things aren't going our way,” Butterfield said.

-Courtesy University of Texas at Dallas Sports Information Department