Men's Basketball | 1/20/2016 4:39:00 PM
SAN MARCOS, Texas – A defensive battle will be on tap Thursday night as two of the top 10 scoring defenses in the nation square off Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Strahan Coliseum between the Texas State men's basketball team and Little Rock. The Trojans surrender a Division I low 56.9 points per game and the Bobcats are seventh at 60.7 points per contest.
Texas State enters the game with an 8-6 overall record and are 2-3 in the Sun Belt Conference. The Trojans are 15-2 this season and tied for first in league play at 5-1 with Arkansas State after falling to the Red Wolves on Monday.
Little Rock holds a 6-2 advantage in the all-time series over the Bobcats. Last season saw the home team win both meetings with the Texas State's 77-74 victory coming in double overtime. The only other win over the Trojans was the first-ever meeting on Dec. 21, 1994 by the score of 66-65.
Emani Gant leads the Bobcats with 13.8 ppg, 7.4 rpg and 52.1 field goal percentage in SBC games. Joining him in averaging double-figure points per contest is
Kavin Gilder-Tilbury and
Ethan Montalvo at 13.2 and 11.8, respectively. Montalvo has made 10 three-pointers and Gilder-Tilbury is 8-for-16 when shooting from beyond the arc.
Over the past three games,
Cameron Naylor has produced 10.0 points and 3.3 rebounds per contest. The senior forward is 12-for-24 from the field and made his first two career three-pointers during the span.
Three of the top four scorers for Little Rock have not started a game. Marcus Johnson Jr. paces the team at 13.5 ppg. Jalen Jackson and Roger Woods add 9.5 and 8.2 ppg, respectively, and average less than 20 minutes on the court. Contributing 11.5 points per contest is Josh Hagins, who has started 16 of the Trojans' 17 games. He also paces the team in assists (4.5) and steals (1.5).
Maurius Hill, Kemy Osse, Jermaine Ruttley and Lis Shosi have started every game this season. Shosi paces the team with 5.1 rpg and 22 blocks. Ruttley, a graduate transfer from Florida A&M, has made 84.0 percent of his free throws. Osse has made 22 three-pointers and Hill grabs 4.0 rpg.
Little Rock enters the game leading the SBC in turnover margin at +5.6 thanks to only turning the ball over 9.9 time per contest and forcing 15.6.
At the helm of the Trojans in his first season is Chris Beard. Previously at Division II Angelo State, he began his coaching career as a graduate assistant under Bobcat head coach
Danny Kaspar at Incarnate Word.
The game will be broadcast over the air waves on 1300 The Zone (1300 AM) and 89.9 FM. Live stats, audio and video will be available with links on the Bobcats men's basketball schedule page at
www.txstatebobcats.com, the official website of Texas State Athletics.
