Texas State Survives Georgia Southern

By Reily Chestnut
Assistant Sports Director

Texas State basketball got over the tough loss to Louisiana last week and pulled off a gritty 62-61 win over Georgia Southern, escaping by the hairs on junior guard Tre’Larenz Nottingham’s chin after he nailed the go-ahead free throw with 3.7 left, capping his night with 12 points.

Where do I begin? Each win for the Bobcats is more heart stopping than the last and I understand if any Bobcat fan needs a heart transplant after this team’s 7-2 start over Sun Belt foes. They don’t make it easy. This win means the Bobcats have a +17 point differential after seven Sun Belt Conference (SBC) victories. That averages out to just a 2.4 point margin of victory each time.  Earlier this year Texas State Baseball earned the nickname “Cardiac ‘Cats” for leaving your chest burning after a victory, but now it’s Texas State Men’s basketball that is leaving us gripping our meds. I think it is safe to say that while this last year for Bobcat athletics might have caused some heart palpitations, the results speak for themselves. Anyways, back to this game and what it took for Bobcat loyalists to celebrate again.

There were four keys to this close win over the Eagles:

1. The Bobcats held their own enough by only getting out rebounded 33-31 by the Eagles (who were averaging 41.4 during conference play before this game).
2. The second half was bad offensively as the ‘Cats shot 6-for-22, but made 11 free throws while knocking down four three-pointers after halftime.
3. Nijal Pearson balled out against the Eagles’ lethal scorer Tookie Brown. Pearson finished with 22 points and eight rebounds to lead the team while Brown finished with a game-high 25 points on 9-of-15 shooting, but couldn’t hit a running three to win it.
4. Texas State held off Georgia Southern’s three-point attack by making the Eagles hit only two of their 21 three-point tries, marking a new season low.

Overall, it’s another great day to be a Bobcat since this win means Head Coach Danny Kaspar and the team will be sitting in that second seed for at least another week after improving to 14-8 this year following this photo finish. Now, they must try to finish the Georgia sweep this Saturday in Atlanta when they fight Georgia State. Catch tip off at 1:15 p.m. following women’s basketball with a 1:00 p.m. pregame on KTSW 89.9!

Featured image by KTSW Multimedia.