Men's Basketball | 1/13/2017 5:54:00 PM
SAN MARCOS, Texas – For the first time in Sun Belt Conference play, the Texas State men's basketball team hits the road when the team travels to take on South Alabama Saturday afternoon at 3:05 p.m. in the Mitchell Center.
The Bobcats head into the game with a 9-6 record on the year and are 2-1 in conference play while the Jaguars sport an 8-8 mark and 1-2 in the SBC.
Last Time Out
Texas State is coming off an upset victory over preseason conference favorite UTA last Saturday.
Kavin Gilder-Tilbury scored a team-high 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting and went 3-for-5 on three-pointers. It was his third 20-point performance in the last three games. The senior also moved into 18th place on the program's career scoring list with 1,058 points.
Ojai Black netted a career-high 16 points against the Mavericks as he made 4-of-5 field goal attempts and was 8-for-9 at the charity stripe. The senior point guard leads the team with 75.0 free throw percentage.
Also posting double-digit scoring games was
Nijal Pearson with 14 points and
Bobby Conley with 11. Pearson did most of his damage at the charity stripe, connecting on 8-of-10 attempts.
Scouting South Alabama
South Alabama has played three close games to start conference play. The Jaguars beat Troy by one and fell to Georgia Southern and Georgia State by five and one, respectively. Over their last nine games, they are 2-7 after starting the year 6-1. When playing at home USA is 6-3.
Five players are averaging 10 or more points per game led by Ken Williams at 12.1. He is shooting just 35.5 percent from the field and 23.7 percent on three-pointers but has made a team-high 81.3 percent at the free throw line. The senior also paces the squad with 2.9 assists per game.
Georgi Boyanov enters scoring 11.6 ppg with a team-high 57.9 field goal percentage and 51.6 three-point percentage. However, the big man is making just 58.8 percent of his charity stripe shots. He is also third on the team with 5.3 rebounds per game.
Nick Stover is putting up 10.9 ppg with a 47.7 field goal percentage. Shaq Calhoun is netting 10.2 ppg and leads the team with 24 made treys and 24 steals. Freshman Josh Ajayi is averaging 10.1 ppg and is second on the team in shooting (50.9%) and rebounding (5.7).
Leading the Jaguars with 6.7 rpg and 19 blocks is Don MuepoKelly. He is scoring 8.9 ppg with a 49.5 percentage from the field.
All-Time Series
The Bobcats leads the all-time series 5-1 with all of the games taking place since Texas State joined the Sun Belt Conference. The past two seasons has seen the Bobcats sweep the season series by double-digits in each contest.
Last year in Mobile, Texas State defeated USA 78-67 behind a double-double of 21 points and 14 rebounds from
Emani Gant.
Live stats, audio and video will be available for the game with Brant Freeman calling the game on either 1300 The Zone (1300 AM) or 103.1 FM out of Austin and on KTSW 89.9 FM out of San Marcos.
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 your school's 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.
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.
