Texas State Suffers Agonizing Defeat

By Reily Chestnut
Assistant Sports Director

It’s another demoralizing day for Texas State Men’s Basketball. Why you ask? Because the Bobcats lost in the friendly confines of Strahan Coliseum to Georgia State 77-50. This is the largest margin of defeat for the ‘cats this season. But let’s read on about how it came to be.

The night started off like a shootout in the making as the Panthers and Bobcats traded basket after basket up to the 7:15 mark in the first half when the ‘Cats trailed just 26-23. The big story from that fast start was how the Bobcats knocked down five early three pointers. But that is when the basket became more sealed off for Texas State. Before you know it, they go without a field goal for the final seven minutes while Georgia State stretches the lead to 35-25 after one half of play.

It’s at this point you’d hope a good locker room speech would be enough to wake up this dormant Bobcat offense and turn the tide that has drowned this team during this now seven game losing streak. Well you’d be wrong again. Things only got worse for Texas State in the second half and the damage was irreversible. Georgia State jogs to the finish line while the Bobcats, and their season, are left gasping for air once again.

Overall, the offense could not be found on this Thursday night matchup. The ultimate epitome of the mediocrity: Texas State shooting 16-30 from the free throw line. At this point, the sun isn’t shining on this season quite like it used to. Nonetheless, here are some positives to acknowledge.

Nijal Pearson led the team in scoring once again with 17 points on 4-of-11 shooting with seven rebounds. He also took away two possessions from Georgia State. Tre Nottingham had fiery flashes of brilliance in an otherwise rough shooting night. Nottingham went 3-for-11 with 10 points, hitting all three of his triples in just a 1:30 span during the first half. Plus, Texas State got to throw out some players who don’t normally see any action with spot appearances from freshman Quentin Scott and Reggie Miller.

So where does the team go from here after dropping to 14-15 with a 7-9 SBC record and seven losing streak? I’m not quite sure. Hopefully it’s the start of a redeeming period this Saturday at 4:30 p.m. when the bobcats host the Georgia Southern Eagles on KTSW 89.9!

Featured image by Giovanni Gilmore.