SBC Women’s Preseason Revealed. Two Bobcats Earn Preseason All-Conference Spots

By Kyle Spencer
Sports Director

Texas State Women’s Basketball was picked to finish sixth in the Sun Belt standings this season. Redshirt senior Erin Peoples and junior Kaitlin Walla were selected to the preseason All-conference third team.

The standings were voted on Tuesday by the coaches in the Sun Belt Conference. Here is a full list of the preseason poll:

2016-17 Sun Belt Conference Women’s Basketball Coaches’ Preseason Poll :

Troy (3) – 125 pts
Texas State ranks 6th in the SBC Preseason Poll. Photo by Kyle Spencer
Little Rock (5) – 121 pts
UT Arlington (3) – 118 pts
South Alabama – 109 pts
UL Lafayette – 101 pts
Texas State – 81 pts
Arkansas State – 80 pts
Appalachian State (1) – 64 pts
Georgia State – 52 pts
Georgia Southern – 39 pts
Coastal Carolina – 26 pts
UL Monroe – 20 pts

*first-place votes in parentheses

Texas State finished 7th in the SBC last season, and lost to Little Rock in the first round of the SBC tournament.

Peoples will be making her return to the court after a season ending injury last year. The redshirt senior averaged 13.5 points per game in her junior campaign. That led to her being named to the SBC all-conference second team. Peoples is currently 95 points away from cracking the top-10 all-time scoring list at Texas State.

In 2014-2015 Kaitlin Walla was limited to eight games due to injury. This past season she rose back up and led the Bobcats in scoring with 10.3 points per game. Walla drained 53 three pointers last year. That total ranks eighth all-time in Texas State history for three pointers made in a season. The junior also put up her career-high of 23 points last season against Texas A&M Commerce, and scored double-digit points 16 times.

Head Coach Zenarae Antoine will have six returning players for the 2016-2017. Four of the players saw playing time last season. Last year’s Bobcat team set the record for three pointers made with 232 made threes. The Bobcats averaged 61 points per game last season while giving up about 71.

Texas State’s first game is Nov. 11 against SMU. The Bobcat’s home opener is Nov. 15th against UIW.