SAN MARCOS, Texas –Kavin Gilder-Tilbury scored 15 points and
Maljhum McCrea added 11 points to lead the Texas State men's basketball team to an 84-49 victory over UT Tyler Monday night in Strahan Coliseum. McCrea also grabbed a game-high nine rebounds in his debut at Texas State after transferring from St. Petersburg College, while Gilder-Tilbury added eight rebounds.
Texas State could not have played any better in the first nine minutes of the game as the Bobcats opened the game hitting six of their first seven shots en route to making 8 of 14 from the field and all three free throws. Texas State also held UT Tyler to 1-10 from the field with six turnovers during that span as the Bobcats jumped out to an early 20-2 lead.
"It couldn't have gotten any better than that," said Texas State head coach
Danny Kaspar. "We were in the defense and were moving the basketball on offense. I wished we could have sustained that. It not that I wanted to score 140, but it would have been nice to score near 100 and keep them in that 49-50 range just to show them that they can do it."
The Bobcats extended their lead to 39-15 at halftime finished the first half with Gilder-Tilbury and McCrea scoring seven points each and
Anthony Roberson added seven more off the bench as Texas State held a 39-15 lead at intermission.
But, Texas State allowed UT Tyler to come back in the first eight minutes of the second half when the Patriots outscored Texas State 20-14. However, Texas State to rally back with a 31-14 run the rest of the game.
Texas State played all 13 players who dress for the game.
Ojai Black scored eight points, while
Cameron Naylor and Roberson finished with seven points each. In addition,
Bobby Conley and
K.J. Malveau added six points and
Kendell Ramlal finished with five points and had a game-high four blocked shots. Roberson led Texas State with three assists, while Black, Malveau and
Ethan Montalvo added two assists each.
The win gives Texas State a 1-0 record heading into Saturday's game at UTEP. The Patriots fell to 0-2 this season after dropping games on consecutive nights.
