SAN MARCOS, Texas – Down by 13 with two minutes to play, the Texas State men's basketball team made a furious comeback but fell short to Louisiana 79-73 Saturday evening in Strahan Coliseum.
 
The Bobcats drop to 10-8 on the season and 3-3 in the Sun Belt Conference while the Ragin' Cajuns are now 13-6 overall and also 3-3 in conference play.


 
Nedeljko Prijovic started the comeback for Texas State when he tipped in a missed shot. After corralling a defensive rebound, Nijal Pearson drove the length of the court for a layup and was fouled. He converted the free throw to cut the deficit to 69-61 with 90 seconds left on the clock.
 
Following four straight points by Louisiana, Pearson drove the lane for a dunk and Ojai Black nailed his lone three-pointer of the game to pull the Bobcats to within seven with 45.8 to go in the game. Kavin Gilder-Tilbury made his fifth and final trey of the game with 24.4 left to cut the deficit to 77-71. However, the Ragin' Cajuns converted two free throws in the final seconds to seal Texas State's fate.
 
A three-pointer and layup on the fastbreak by Gilder-Tilbury put Texas State up 7-2 just over two and half minutes into the game. With 14:05 remaining in the half, Pearson hit his lone three-pointer of the game to beat the shot clock and make it a 12-7 game in favor of the Bobcats.
 
Louisiana responded with seven straight points to give the visitors its first lead of the game. The Ragin' Cajuns later went on a 23-7 run that spanned 8:10 to take their largest lead of the game at 37-23.
 
Texas State held LA scoreless the rest of the half while getting a three-pointer from Marlin Davis and a layup courtesy of Gilder-Tilbury to pull to within nine heading to halftime.
 
Pearson opened the second half with a layup and Gilder-Tilbury converted an old-fashion three-point play to pull the Bobcats to within 39-33. However, the Ragin' Cajuns responded with a 9-0 heading to make it 48-33 in their favor.
 
Coming out of the first media timeout of the period, Gilder-Tilbury sank his second three-pointer of the game. Black followed by flipping in a layup to make it a 10-point deficit for Texas State. A triple from Gilder-Tilbury made it 52-44 in favor of Louisiana, the closest the Bobcats would get until the final minute of the game.
 
Pacing the Bobcats with 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting and going 5-for-9 from beyond the arc was Gilder-Tilbury. He moved up to 15 on the program's career points with 1,107. The senior also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and handed out four assists.
 
Also reaching double-figures was Pearson with 18 points. He was 8-for-15 from the field, grabbed five rebounds and recorded a steal.
 
Both Tyler Blount and Black scored seven points apiece. Blount connected on 3-of-6 shots with one made trey. Black struggled from the field, going 2-for-11, but dished out a season-high seven assists while turning the ball over just once.
 
The Bobcats shot the ball 22 more times that the Ragin' Cajuns but converted 42.9 percent of their shots compared to 54.2 percent by the visitors. Louisiana also went 20-for-23 (87.0%) from the free throw line while Texas State was just 4-of-9 (44.4%).
 
Next up for Texas State is ULM on Monday at 7 p.m. in Strahan Coliseum.
 
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.