Bobcats Drop Their Sixth Straight Conference Matchup

By Reily Chestnut
Assistant Sports Director

Talk about a meltdown. After seven Sun Belt games Texas State was second in the conference with a six game winning streak to bolster that incredible run. It had everything from nasty defense, ugly offense, clutch shots and lucky breaks. Alas, it seems that luck has continued to run out for these Bobcats. They have lost six straight games now, the latest dud being a 79-71 defeat at the hands of UL-Monroe. In all, they have now lost seven of their last eight games, truly stuck in a consistently inconsistent situation.

The Bobcats have lost the defensive toughness they hold as their identity. The last three games have seen the ‘cats give up over 70 points each time. At first the problem was the team’s offense was so dormant it couldn’t crack 60; now it’s the defense can’t stop losing possessions. Head Coach Danny Kaspar must be steaming at this point after this effort which saw the Bobcats give up their second highest total of the season. How you might ask? Probably because Texas State gave up 11 3-pointers, seven of them in the second half to help UL-Monroe pull away. This in part contributed to the Warhawks shooting 54.5 percent in this game while the Bobcats gave the ball away 17 times. But it wasn’t all bad news for Texas State fans if you look at the stat sheet.

Senior forward Immanuel King scored a career-high 22 points on 10-of-14 shooting with six rebounds. Sophomore guard Nijal Pearson shot 6-of-13 for the second straight game to finish with 17 points. Even Tre’Larenz Nottingham finished with a stat line of 10 points, eight assists, six rebounds and two steals on 4-of-9 shooting. These were not enough though and the Bobcats still find themselves falling further down the abyss.

This loss has dropped the team to 14-14 overall with a 7-8 SBC record that continues to look worse for me when I remember that it used to be 7-2 (so much hope back then). Has the mental anguish from all these close conference games finally cracked the team’s resilience? Unfortunately, it might have if this loss means anything for me. But remember that there is still time (albeit not a lot of it) for the men’s team to turn it all around and get ready to make a run for the SBC tournament crown. They can start next week with their final home stretch before the conference tournament. More specifically next Thursday night at seven o’clock against current SBC second seed Georgia State. That game will be happening at Strahan Coliseum, but if you can’t make it then tune into KTSW 89.9 to hear if this team can become the biggest spoilers in the Sun Belt.

 Featured photo by Giovanni Gilmore.