Preview: Texas State Bobcats vs. Troy Trojans

By Kennedy Moore
Sports Reporter

After yesterday’s win against South Alabama (18-10 overall, 8-7 Sun Belt), Texas State Men’s basketball team (20-6 overall, 11-3 Sun Belt) are the Sun Belt Conference champions for the regular season for the second year in a row.

The victory was Texas State’s eighth straight win, and it tied for the Bobcats’ longest winning streak of the season.

Mason Harrell, Caleb Asberry, and Isiah Small have played a huge role in Texas State’s winning streak.

The Bobcats are the only Sun Belt team with 10+ conference wins in the last four years.

Texas State has already secured a spot in the Sun Belt Conference Men’s Basketball Championship in Pensacola, Florida, on March 5.

The Bobcats will face the Troy Trojans (19-9 overall, 10-5 Sun Belt) at Veterans Memorial Stadium next for the last game of the regular season.

Tomorrow’s game will be the 15th meeting between the programs as Texas State leads the all-time series 8-5 with a 3-2 record away.

The last time the Bobcats and Trojans faced off was on Dec. 31, which was the first game of conference play. Texas State lost 78-63.

Efe Odigie was the leading scorer for the Trojans in that game with 22 points. Troy had their way with the Bobcats, limiting them to just 37.5% from the field.

Overall, the Trojans shot 54.7% from the field and 66.7% from the line.

The Bobcats shot 30.4% from the three-point line and 71.4% from the line.

Small (17), Michael Ceaser (16), and Asberry (14) reached double-digit scores, but it wasn’t enough for the Bobcats to get the win.

Troy’s bench players outscored Texas State’s 29-1.

Along with Odigie, Duke Deen is another leading scorer for Troy, averaging 9.3 points per game.

Deen ended the game with five steals and eight points in the last matchup.

A strength that the Trojans possess is their strong rebounds when they are down in the last quarter. In Troy’s latest game against UT Arlington, they came away with the win after being down in most of the fourth quarter. With this win, Coach Scott Cross earned his first victory over his former school at Trojan Arena.

Cross was entering his second season as head coach and was the only head coach in the Sun Belt Conference to earn five victories over the top four teams in the final standings.

“I think we won the game on the glass,” Cross said. “To have 46 rebounds in a game and outrebound them by 20-plus is why we were able to pull this one out.”

The Trojans turned over the ball an excessive number of times in their last game.

“To have 22 turnovers is probably a season-high for us, so they were very disruptive,” Cross said. The Bobcats only had four turnovers compared to the Trojans 12 in their last matchup.

The Bobcats will be aiming for 12 wins in conference play during this next game, airing on ESPN2 at 8 p.m. CT.

 Image By Joey Gonzalez