Men's Basketball | 2/19/2016 4:58:00 PM

SAN MARCOS, Texas – Saturday is the final contest of a four-game homestand in Strahan Coliseum for the Texas State men's basketball team. The Bobcats welcome UL Lafayette to town for a 4:30 p.m. tip.
 
Coming off a tough loss on Thursday, Texas State looks to pick up a big victory to keep its Sun Belt Conference Tournament hopes alive. Entering the game the Bobcats are 10-13 on the season and in ninth in the conference standings with a 4-10 record. They are 2.5 games back of Georgia State for the eighth seed
 
All-Time Series
All seven games in the all-time series have gone the Ragin' Cajuns way. They won the first meeting by 26 points, the largest defeat the Bobcats have suffered this season, back on Jan. 28. When playing in San Marcos, ULL has won the two meetings by a combined 10 points. Texas State fell by 72-63 last season and lost 67-66 on a late three-pointer on Feb. 8, 2014.
 
Scouting Texas State
Emani Gant is coming off a 13-point performance and leads the team in scoring (12.9), rebounding (7.4) and field goal percentage (49.3). The Los Angeles, California native moved up to 10th on the program's career blocks list with two against UL Monroe to give him 49 in his career.
 
Kavin Gilder-Tilbury is second on the team with 12.2 points and 1.9 assists per game. Also contributing double-digit points is Ethan Montalvo at 10.7 ppg. He has made 47 three-pointers and making 37.5 percent of his long distance shots this season.
 
Point guard Ojai Black continues to roll handing out assists over the last eight games. During that time he has been credited with 30 assists for an average of 3.8 per contest. The senior has also turned the ball over only 10 times.
 
The Bobcats enter surrendering 64.4 ppg, the 22nd fewest in the country. They are also 28th with a +2.8 turnover margin and force 15.0 turnover per game that ranks 36th. Offensively, Texas State is scoring 65.4 ppg and making 41.9 percent of its shots.
 
Scouting UL Lafayette
UL Lafayette enters Saturday with a 14-10 mark and 10-5 in league action. The Ragin' Cajuns are coming off a one-point overtime loss at UT Arlington Thursday night. On the road this season, ULL is 3-9 with all of their victories coming against SBC opponents.
 
Averaging a double-double is the conference's Preseason Student-Athlete of the Year selection Shawn Long with 19.3 points and 13.1 rebounds per game. His rebounding mark leads the league and is third in the nation. He is making 52.2 percent of his shots but has struggled at the free throwing line having hit 65.7 percent of them.
 
Second on the team in scoring is Kasey Shepherd at 11.4 ppg. He has made a team-high 44 treys, made 90.6 percent of his charity stripe attempts and recorded 35 steals.
 
Both Jonathan Stove and Jay Wright have started every game this season for the Cajuns. Wright comes in dishing out a team best 3.6 assists per contest and netting 9.3 ppg. Stove is averaging 8.8 ppg
 
ULL is scoring a SBC best 81.4 points per game and are making 45.6 percent of its shots. However, the Ragin' Cajuns are making just 31.1 percent of their attempt from beyond the arc. They are second in the conference in both rebounding (41.5) and rebounding margin (+7.8).
 
Fans can listen to the game over the air waves on 1300 The Zone (1300 AM) and KTSW 89.9 FM with Bill Culhane on the call. 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.