Women’s Basketball Breaks ULM

By Reily Chestnut
Assistant Sports Director

Bring out the brooms! The Bobcats swept the regular season series by crushing UL-Monroe 81-45 on their home floor! In other words, they crushed the Warhawks and showed the Sun Belt why this team usually wins very comfortably.

What makes this victory so impressive, though can’t be measured by just any stat off the sheet, it’s the fact that the ‘Cats pulled this off (and Thursday’s win in Lafayette) without scoring leader Toshua Leavitt and her replacement starter Bailee Holle after she got injured in the first quarter. That’s right… ULM is that bad and Texas State was that good. But if not Leavitt or her replacement for the weekend Holle, how did they keep the train rolling?

Collective Effort.

I had to capitalize that because senior forward Ti’Aira Pitts balled out today in Fant-Ewing Coliseum. She scored a career-high 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting, perfectly utilizing the spacing created by Head Coach Zenarae Antoine’s backcourt, and swatted a career-high four blocks. Meanwhile, senior guard Taeler Deer (know her?) led the team with 22 points. The all-time leading passer in program history also passed around eight assists and grabbed seven rebounds to keep a triple-double watch active. Adding to the fun was sophomore guard Brooke Holle’s 21 points with three 3-pointers. This is a team that needed some help to defeat UL-Monroe since the ‘cats lost Bailee Holle after just six minutes of action for the rest of the game. As you can tell, the squad got better support than Matilda Wormwood ever did (from the movie Matilda…in case it didn’t register).

The bench players helped back up the starters. Graduate forward Zelor Massaquoi had eight points and six rebounds in 18-minutes while junior guard Dabrasia Baty dished out a career-high six assists in a season-high 31-minutes of action in relief of Holle. Sometimes it does not matter how many hits a team takes, but rather how that team responds to the blows. I’d say Texas State responded very well in spite of the temporary lineup shift. All the more reason to keep expecting great things for this basketball team once they return home for their final three regular season games next week.

The slaying of ULM has given Texas State 18 wins this season for the first time in 10 years! That 2007-08 battalion finished with 21 wins and an NIT berth. So if your expectations weren’t sky high already then step up son! Finally, prove you have stepped up by trying make it their next battle this Thursday in Strahan Coliseum against Georgia State. This game will tip off at high noon and is the Texas State Annual Kid’s Game. Whatever you decide, just keep supporting your Bobcats!

Featured Photo by Bill Culhane.