SAN MARCOS, Texas – All three of the Texas State men's basketball seniors in their final game in Strahan Coliseum helped lead the team to a 68-57 victory Saturday over South Alabama that punched the Bobcats ticket to the Sun Belt Conference Tournament next week.
The Bobcats improved to 14-15 on the season and 8-12 in conference play while the Jaguars fell to 13-18 and are also 8-12 in the league. Texas State will be the seventh seed in the tournament thanks to sweeping the season series with USA.
Cameron Naylor led all scorers with a team-high 22 points on 10-of-15 shooting and went 2-for-3 at the free throw line. He fell one rebound shy of recording his second double-double of the season.
Emani Gant did record a double-double, the seventh this season for him, with 18 points and 11 rebounds. He moved up to 19th on the school's career scoring list with 1,030.
Fellow senior
Ethan Montalvo added nine points with two three-pointers. He now has 111 in his Bobcat career and ties him for 10th on the program's list with Brent Holder (2006-08).
Junior point guard
Ojai Black netted nine points, dished out seven assists to just one turnover and blocked a shot.
Kavin Gilder-Tilbury finished with 7 points, five rebounds, a game-high two steals and a rejection.
Coming off the bench,
Anthony Roberson grabbed eight rebounds and scored two points on a dunk in the second half. The only other Texas State player to score was
K.J. Malveau when he made a 1-for-2 trip at the charity stripe.
The Bobcats were 27-for-61 (44.3%) from the field and attempted only nine three-pointers with two going in. They held the visitors to 20-of-57 (35.1%) shooting the ball with an 8-for-27 (29.6%) in the final 20 minutes. On the glass, the Cats won the battle 46-35 and turned 13 offensive rebounds into 16 second chance points.
A 7-2 run with Naylor scoring the last five points gave the Bobcats an early 9-6 advantage. After a jumper from Naylor at the 11:58 mark broke a 14-14 tie, the Jaguars went on an 8-0 run over nearly a two minute span. They would take their largest lead of the game at nine following a dunk by Nick Stover with 3:41 left until halftime.
Texas State held USA to just two points the rest of the period while scoring nine themselves, the last coming on a free throw by Malveau. The game almost went into intermission tied but a putback by Roberson did not beat the buzzer.
Eight straight points allowed USA to take a 46-42 lead with just under 13 minutes left in the game. The visitors would stay in front until 13-1 run by the Bobcats that began on a layup from Black.
The Jaguars pulled to within five with 2:04 to play after two free throw from Ken Williams. On the ensuing possession, Black threw a cross court pass while being double teamed to Naylor, who had to use all his length to corral the ball. He then found Montalvo just inside the arc, who then passed to Gant for an emphatic slam that took the thought of a comeback out of South Alabama's minds.
Roberson finished off the scoring with a putback slam with just under 16 seconds remaining.
For the first time this season and just the third under head coach
Danny Kaspar have the Bobcats won a game while trailing at halftime. Texas State fans helped make history tonight as well. With an attendance of 2,001, the Bobcats set a new single season average (2,290) and overall (32,053) records.
Texas State now heads to New Orleans for the SBC Tournament and an opening round game at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday against Georgia State in Lakefront Arena.
