Texas State Women’s Basketball Bullies UL-Monroe

By Reily Chestnut
Assistant Sports Director

In another all-too-familiar style, Texas State Women’s basketball threw down the gauntlet back home with an 86-52 win over the University of Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks (ULM). From the start the Bobcats were off to the races, but not without checking off one huge milestone along the way (right off the bat in fact…).

Coming into this battle, most people would say they felt good about the Bobcats’ chances of winning this game as ULM rolled into San Marcos with a 1-4 Sun Belt Conference record. This was despite ILM’s forward Gabriella Cortez, who was averaging 22 points a night in conference play before coming into Strahan. However, there was one lingering question in the back of Bobcat fans’ minds. How long before Toshua Leavitt got her first three to set the career record in program history?

According to the game clock, it took just 15 seconds for Leavitt to make the net sing and for her to knock career three pointer number 197, making Leavitt the program’s all-time three point queen. Leavitt would go on to finish the game with five threes, making her the first Bobcat to knock down over 200 in her career (Sheesh….can you believe she is only a junior?). However, Leavitt’s 19 wasn’t alone tonight… it wasn’t even the top output on the squad.

Enter senior guard Taeler Deer who on this night ran the Warhawks out of the building with a game high 36 points on 13-20 shooting with a soaring six threes! On top of that output, Deer’s highest scoring game since dropping 44 on Texas Tech, she also handed out seven dimes to match her three steals and tied for the team lead with Leavitt. In total, Deer and Leavitt scored 55 of the team’s points tonight to seal their spot atop the Sun Belt as the highest scoring backcourt. What these two did tonight won’t soon be forgotten.

This win over ULM makes Head Coach Zenarae Antoine the fourth person in Bobcat history to earn 100 wins for the women’s program (To think it’s taken her less than 7 seasons). Even better is the fact that she has turned this program into something to be proud of while pushing her name even further up the list of Bobcat coaching greats.

Overall, the Cats improve to 12-6 with a 5-2 SBC record to hold the third place spot in the Sun Belt through the first seven SBC games. Catch the team back for round two of the weekend fun when they host the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns this Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. on KTSW 89.9!

Featured image by Spencer Hall.