Texas State Turns Over at Mizzou

By Reily Chestnut
Sports Director

They say in order to lead a good life one must be able to maintain control both in what you can influence and how you react to opposition. Well, the Bobcats learned just how devastating turn overs can be when playing a top-25 program. The girls fell 69-50 in Columbus, Missouri to the Mizzou Tigers after giving away the ball 17 times.

It was the main ingredient that the Tigers needed to outrun the young group of Bobcats led by Head Coach Zenarae Antoine. To be fair, the Tigers still lost the turnover battle after coughing up the rock 20 times. However, the Bobcats gave away 24 points as a result of their miscues to help factor into the final 19 point total.

The next equation to stick out would be senior star Toshua Leavitt’s tough outing. The Nixa, Missouri native finished with just 6 points off 2-of-11 shooting from outside. Leavitt demonstrated this stat line by showing spats of visible frustration during the game. Of course, one must not show their open wounds when a pack of tigers is pouncing on you. Her struggles highlighted the trouble the Bobcats had knocking down shots in the first half despite getting their fair share of good looks in the first half. The final strike would be the 5-for-26 postmarking the team put up collectively from 3PT land.

Mix a lack of communication, according to Antoine, that saw the Tigers dominate paint scoring 36-14 with the above factors and you are left with a hard lesson learned for the Bobcats. It wasn’t all frustration and futility.

Freshman guard Ja’Kayla Bowie posted up well against the Tigers. Bowie posted a nice stat line of nine points, five assists, four rebounds with four steals. Meanwhile, junior guard Brooke Holle led the team with 14 points and six boards, her fourth straight game scoring in double figures. So in the spirit of silver linings, here are a few solid takeaways from the ‘Cats kickstart to their three game road trip.

Again, the ‘Cats forced #24 Mizzou to cough the ball up 20 times! After that, you can certainly say that the Bobcats aren’t going to miss the shots they got in the first half most nights. Finally, Antoine pointed out to Brant Freeman in the postgame show that the effort is there on defense. The team just needs to talk more in order to better implement the zone defense they struggled with against Mizzou.

The loss drops Texas State to 4-5 on the season. Their next game will be in New Orleans, Louisiana when they start the 2018 Tulane Classic against St. Mary’s this Friday on KTSW 89.9 at 1:00 p.m.

Featured photo by Texas State Athletics.