SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State men's basketball team earned its first season sweep of Troy in program history, beating the Trojans 67-61, Thursday night at Strahan Coliseum. With the win the Bobcats, who currently sit a game above the Trojans in the Sun Belt standings, own the head-to-head tiebreaker for the race to New Orleans and the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. 

"I'm proud of my guys' effort," head coach Danny Kaspar said. "I think they came out with intensity and they were ready to play today. Now if we can get this win on Saturday I think we'll be in a pretty good situation."   

Much like the first meeting between the two teams, Texas State went on a large run in the first half, this time a 12-0 spurt to take a 17-9 run. Ojai Black and Kavin Gilder-Tilbury each hit a three during the run, as part of the Bobcats' 6-for-8 performance from three-point range in the first half.

JaMarcus Weatherspoon provided the Bobcats with energy, attacking the rim constantly and getting to the free throw line as Troy's leading scorer Musa Abdul-Aleem had to sit much of the first 10 minutes of the game with two fouls. Weatherspoon finished the first half with five points and Texas State went into halftime with a 35-27 lead.

Cameron Naylor got involved early in the second half with four quick points. His second basket was on the receiving end of a beautiful touch pass from Wes Davis to give the Bobcats a 41-32 lead. The lead would eventually grow to as large as 46-34 following a technical foul on Troy.

Troy made a run to cut the lead to 49-43 with 10 minutes to go, but D.J. Brown answered by hitting his second three of the night, to grow the lead back to nine. The lead stayed above six for the majority of the second half, before Abdul-Aleem hit a three to cut the deficit to 64-61 with 35 seconds to go, but Black made his free throws for the Bobcats down the stretch to seal the win.

Tilbury finished the game with a team-high 13 points, joining Emani Gant as the team's double-digit scorers for the night. Gant had his third double-double of the season, finishing with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Texas State will wrap up its home schedule on Saturday at 4:30 p.m., on Senior Day against Arkansas State. The game will be televised on KBVO and can be heard at 89.9 FM KTSW and txstatebobcats.com/radio.

Note: During pregame warm-ups, Texas State student-athletes wore "It's On Us" t-shirts as a conference wide movement to bring awareness to the campaign at upcoming men's and women's basketball games. The organization of these rallies will act as a way of demonstrating that sexual assault is an unacceptable behavior, that safe harboring perpetrators is intolerable, and that support for victims is imperative.