Men's Basketball | 11/30/2016 5:03:00 PM

SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State men's basketball team plays its second straight game in Strahan Coliseum on Thursday against Oklahoma Panhandle State with tipoff slated for 7 p.m.
 
Entering the contest, the Bobcats have a 3-3 record on the season while the Aggies are 3-2. Thursday's game will be an exhibition game for OPSU.
 
Last Time Out
Texas State is coming off a 12-point victory at home on Tuesday over McNeese State. Freshman Nijal Pearson led the way with his first career double-double of 23 points and 11 rebounds, both career-highs. He also had seven assists to fall three assists shy of recording a triple-double.
 
Kavin Gilder-Tilbury added 21 points and seven rebounds. It was the third game this season that the senior has scored at least 20 points and the second that both he and Pearson have had 20-plus points in the same game.
 
Defensively, Bobby Conley set a new career-high with three steals and tied his career best of two blocks. Also blocking two shots for the Bobcats was Maxwell Starwood.
 
Scouting Oklahoma Panhandle State
OPSU is a NCAA Division II program and member of the Heartland Conference. Beginning with the 2017-18 school year, the Aggies drop down to NAIA and will join the Sooner Athletic Conference. This season the team has victories over Barclay College (100-75), Bethel College (82-79) and Western New Mexico.
 
Pacing OPSU in scoring is Devonta Brooks and Jace Kerr at 16.4 points per game apiece. Brooks has made a team-high 64.2 percent of his shots but has struggled at the free throw line, going 10-for-24 (41.7%). He is also the team's leading rebounder at 9.6 per game. Kerr enters with a 54.5 field goal percentage and team-high 84.6 free throw percentage despite coming off the bench in the team's first four contests.
 
Also averaging double-figures is Malcolm Glanville (10.8 ppg) and Riyadh Asad (10.6). Asad is dishing out a team best 4.2 assists per game and has made a team-high 14 three-pointers.
 
In his first appearance of the season in the Aggies' last game against Bethel College, Pierre Roddy scored 20 points on 6-of-10 shooting with four made three-pointers. He finished with four rebounds and three assists as well.
 
As a team, OPSU is shooting 43.8 percent from the field, 36.2 percent from beyond the arc and are converting 67.5 percent of its free throw attempts. The Aggies are averaging 61 shots a game with nearly 30 being three-point attempts.
 
All-Time Series
Texas State was victorious the lone official meeting between the two programs by the score of 69-57 on Jan. 5, 2010 in Strahan Coliseum. Last season, the two teams met in an exhibition game on Nov. 24. The Bobcats won 93-62 with four players reaching double-digit points led be Gilder-Tilbury's 21.
 
Live stats, video and audio will be available for the game. Bill Culhane will be on the call with the game being broadcast on 1300 The Zone.
 
Season tickets are currently on sale for the 2016-17 basketball season. They can be purchased online at www.txstatebobcats.com/tickets, over the phone at 512-245-2272 or by visiting the Mark and Linda Smith Ticket Office at Bobcat Stadium between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
 
For the latest on Texas State men's basketball, visit the official website of Texas State athletics at www.txstatebobcats.com, follow the team on Twitter at @TxStateMBB, Instagram at @TxStateMBB and like on Facebook at /TexasStateMensBasketball.