CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – A defensive battle took place Saturday night in the American Bank Center between Texas State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Both teams held each other below 30 percent shooting but the Bobcats fell short 47-39.
 
Texas State saw their two-game winning streak come to an end and are now 3-2 on the season. The Islanders improve to 6-2 overall and have won five in-a-row.
 
Within the first minute, Anthony Roberson converted two free throw attempts and Maljhum McCrea made a layup to give Texas State a 4-0 advantage. A 12-1 run over a 9:18 span allowed the Islanders to take the lead. Kavin Gilder-Tilbury ended the run on a three-pointer from the left wing.
 
After the Islanders went up nine early in the second half, the Bobcats responded with a 9-1 scoring burst to make it a one-point game. During the scoring stretch, Ethan Montalvo and Gilder-Tilbury nailed a trey apiece. After TAMUCC pushed their advantage to four, Cameron Naylor made his first free throw attempt and his missed second shot was put back in by McCrea to make the deficit 30-29 with 8:21 to play.
 
The Islanders tallied 16 of the next 20 points to seal the game. Bobby Conley, Black and Gilder-Tilbury all made two free throws each over the last couple of minutes to cut the final score to single digits while holding TAMUC to just one point.
 
Black was the lone Bobcat to reach double-figures in points with 11 as he made three field goals and went 5-for-6 at the charity stripe. On the glass, six rebounds were grabbed by the trio of Kendall Ramlal, Gilder-Tilbury and Naylor to pace the team.
 
Montalvo followed his program record tying steals performance against UTSA with a game-high four swipes. Also finishing with multiple steals were Black and Gilder-Tilbury with two apiece.
 
As a team, Texas State held the Islanders to 15-of-51 shooting (29.4 percent) and a 5-for-21 performance (23.8 percent) on three-pointers. The Bobcats could only manage to make nine shots against the tenacious TAMUCC defense. Almost half the points for Texas State came at the free throw line as it finished 18-of-27.
 
The Bobcats return to the hardwood in eight days when they take on Texas-Rio Grande Valley on Dec. 13 at 2 p.m. in Strahan Coliseum.