Women's Basketball | 12/28/2016 10:20:00 AM
SAN MARCOS, Texas – Texas State University women's basketball opens Sun Belt Conference play Thursday evening at Strahan Coliseum. The Bobcats are set for a 7 p.m. opening tip against league newcomer Coastal Carolina.
Scene Setter
• Texas State plays its 12th game of the season and first Sun Belt Conference game of 2016-17 slate on Thurs., Dec. 29 against Coastal Carolina.
• The Bobcats are 5-6 on the season and average 54.9 points and 19.5 forced turnovers per contest.
• Texas State enters the game coming off a 59-58 road win at North Texas on Dec. 22. Coastal Carolina (5-5) last played on Dec. 20, picking up a 79-72 win at the College of Charleston.
TXST vs. CCU
• Thursday marks the first meeting between Texas State and Coastal Carolina. The Chanticleers are in their first season as Sun Belt Conference members, moving to the league from the Big South on July 1, 2016.
• Moreover, Thursday will mark the first time in program history Texas State has played an opponent from South Carolina.
Last Time Out For the Bobcats
•
Ericka May split two free throws with six seconds to play in regulation to lift Texas State to a 59-58 win at North Texas. The Bobcats led by as many as 23 in the first half, but were forced to withstand a second half rally by the Mean Green.
• Texas State shot 66.7 percent (16 of 24), counted five 3-pointers and scored 21 points off 16 North Texas turnovers in the first half to build as much as a 23-point lead over the Mean Green. The Bobcats slowed in the second half as the Mean Green rallied to tie the game at 58-all with a minute to play. A combined three turnovers on the next three possessions left the Bobcats with the ball and 28 seconds to play. May ended up with the ball and was fouled on a shot in the paint, setting up the junior's heroics.
•
Ti'Aira Pitts, who made each of Texas State's fourth-quarter field goals, led the Bobcats in scoring with a career-high 14 points on 5 of 8 from the field and 4 of 4 at the free-throw line.
Toshua Leavitt also reached double-figures with 12 points on four second-quarter 3-pointers.
Amber Jones scored 10 points, marking her second career double-digit scoring game. The Bobcats closed the game shooting 51.2 percent (22 of 43) from the field and outscored UNT by 11 off turnovers.
• North Texas was led by Terrell Bradley and Kelsey Criner with 19 and 16 points, respectively. After shooting just 31.6 percent in the first half, the Mean Green made 14 of their 29 second-half attempts to close the game at a 41.7 shooting percentage (20 of 48). UNT won the rebounding battle 28-25 and outscored the Bobcats 30-24 in the paint.
Peoples Makes Season Debut
• Redshirt senior
Erin Peoples made her 2016-17 season debut on Dec. 22 at North Texas. Peoples played 12 minutes off the bench, scoring four points and registering a steal (first basket came by way of steal and fastbreak layup).
• Peoples, a preseason All-Sun Belt selection, suffered a knee injury in August 2015 that forced her to medically redshirt last season and miss the first 10 games of the current campaign. Her minutes at North Texas were her first of game action since March 18, 2015 -- a span of 646 days.
Pitts Scores Career High
• Forward
Ti'Aira Pitts scored a career-high 14 points at North Texas (Dec. 22). She went 5 of 8 from the field and a perfect 4 of 4 at the free-throw line. She scored four in the first half, six in the fourth quarter and four in the fourth quarter. Her four fourth-quarter points came by way of Texas State's only two fourth-quarter field goals.
Finding The Right Mix
• Texas State has used seven different starting lineups this season with only
Ti'Aira Pitts starting each game.
• Nine of Texas State's 14 active players have saw action in at least 10 games and an additional two seeing time in at least nine contests.
Scoring In The Paint
• Post players
Amber Jones and
Ti'Aira Pitts are making the most of their touches in the paint. Jones, a redshirt junior forward, is shooting 61.0 percent from the field, knocking down 25 of 41 attempts. Pitts, a junior, is making 50.9 percent of her attempts (29 of 57) from the floor. However, Pitts has attempted 17 3-pointers, making five for a 29.4 percentage from deep. When those triples are subtracted from her overall numbers, Pitts is shooting 24 of 40 (60.0 percent) from inside the arc.
• Just under the 50.0 shooting percent threshold is
De'Jionae Calloway at 46.2 percent and
Zandra Emanuel at 45.8 percent. Emanuel has converted 11 of 24 attempts, while Calloway has made 6 of 13.
• As a team the Bobcats are averaging 23.5 points in the paint per game with a season high of 36 in the win over Sam Houston State (Dec. 19).
Sun Belt Conference Championship
• The 2017 Sun Belt Conference Men's and Women's Basketball Championships are scheduled for a week of March Madness in the Big Easy. New Orleans will once again be home to the two championships that will take place at Lakefront Arena from March 7-12 and ticket books can now be purchased from the Texas State ticket office. For more information, visit the Sun Belt Conference's championship central websites -
Men's Championship –
Women's Championship – and be sure to follow the @FunBelt on social media -
@SunBelt.
