SAN MARCOS, Texas - Seniors Ojai Black and Cameron Naylor posted career games Saturday afternoon to help lead the Texas State men's basketball team to a 78-68 victory over Arkansas State in Strahan Coliseum. Naylor scored a career-high 20 points and Black dished out a career best eight assists without committing a turnover.

The Bobcats snapped their two-game winless streak to improve to 9-7 overall and 3-4 in the Sun Belt Conference while the Red Wolves fell to 9-10 and 5-3 in conference action.



Naylor made 8-of-12 shots, including his lone three-point attempt, was 3-for-4 at the free throw line and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds. Kavin Gilder-Tilbury netted 17 points thanks to three treys. Adding 15 points, 12 coming in the second half, was Ethan Montalvo as he nailed 5-of-7 attempts from beyond the arc.

Black posted seven points and a block to go along with his assist total, the most by a Bobcat during head coach Danny Kaspar's tenure. The last Texas State player to record eight assists in a game was Phil Hawkins on Mar. 7, 2013 at Utah State.

Emani Gant recorded a nine-point, seven-rebound performance and Anthony Roberson made 6-of-7 shots at the charity stripe on his way to totaling eight points.



Texas State shot 45.5 percent from the field and were 9-of-15 (60.0 percent) from long distance, its highest percentage since Nov. 30, 2013 against Northern Kentucky. Arkansas State made 43.1 percent (22-of-51) of its shots but the Bobcats held them to 38.5 percent in the first 20 minutes.

For the second straight game, the Bobcats jumped out to an early lead. This time 10-2 behind seven points from Naylor. He hit a jumper with 3:41 left until halftime to put Texas State in front by 14, the largest lead of the game.

The Red Wolves were able to pull to within seven with 70 seconds left in the first half. Gant powered his way in for a layup on the very next possession and Gilder-Tilbury closed out the scoring with a three-pointer to give the Bobcats a 38-26 lead at intermission.

With 8:59 left in the game, Arkansas State closed to within one after a trey by Sean Gardner. Montalvo answered back with back-to-back three-pointers, the second being on a fastbreak after Black's only steal of the contest. Four straight free throws by Roberson increased the Bobcats' advantage to 66-55.

The closest the Red Wolves got the rest of the game was seven at the 2:32 mark following a long range basket by Anthony Livingston. Black sealed the victory by driving nearly 25 feet down the lane to beat the shot clock for a layup and final points.

Four straight road games awaits Texas State over the next two weeks. First up is a trip to UL Lafayette on January 28 for a 7:15 p.m. tipoff.