CONWAY, S.C. – Freshman Nijal Pearson came up big with the game-winning basket with 15 seconds to play to give the Texas State men's basketball team at 52-50 victory over Coastal Carolina Saturday evening in the HTC Center.
 
The Bobcats improve to 12-8 on the season and 5-3 in the Sun Belt Conference while the Chanticleers are now 9-12 overall and 4-4 in conference play. It was the first loss suffered at home by CCU against a league foe.

"This was a great win for our program. Coastal Carolina is a very good basketball team, particularly at home where no one in conference play had beaten them," said head coach Danny Kaspar. "I can't tell you how proud I am of the guys. I am especially proud of how very well Immanuel King, who is from this area in North Carolina, played today."
 
A close game throughout, the largest lead of the game for either team was five that the Chanticleers accomplished three times with the first being 7-2 with 16:21 remaining in the first half. Texas State chipped away and when in front for the first time at 11-10 when Immanuel King knocked down two free throws.
 
Following an 8-2 run by CCU, the Bobcats scored seven straight with the first five tallied by Kavin Gilder-Tilbury. Capping off the run was Ojai Black with a layup.
 
Gilder-Tilbury scored the last points of the half by either team with a layup with 1:38 left in the first period to give Texas State a 26-25 advantage at halftime.
 
Having gone nearly five and a half minutes without a field goal and two minutes without a point, the Bobcats found themselves trailing by three with 6:26 remaining on the clock. Black came off a screen and found himself open from the top of the arc. The senior knocked down just his sixth three-pointer of the season to knot the score at 41-41.
 
Back-to-back three-pointers by CCU's Elijah Wilson bookended a jumper from Pearson to give the Chanticleers a four-point lead. Pearson answered with his lone made trey of the game and Bobby Conley converted both of his free throw attempts coming out of the last media timeout to make it 48-47 Texas State.
 
Gilder-Tilbury sunk a short jumper in traffic to make it 50-49 Bobcats at the 1:20 mark. Shivaughn Wiggins was able to draw a foul to go to the charity stripe for two shots. However, he was only able to knock down one of the two attempts.
 
With 15 seconds remaining, Pearson hit an 18-foot jumper to put Texas State in front for good. The Chanticleers had a chance to tie the game but the layup attempt did not go down, Pearson grabbed the rebound and threw an outlet pass to Conley to run out the clock.
 
Gilder-Tilbury was the lone Bobcat in double-figures with a game-high 18 points. His total moved him into a tie for 11 on the program's career scoring list with Rudy Davalos (1957-60) with 1,138 points. The senior also grabbed seven rebounds and tied his career-high with four steals. For his career, Gilder-Tilbury now has 116 steals to place him sixth in school history.
 
Both Black and Pearson finished with nine points apiece. Black knocked down all four of his shot attempts while Pearson had seven boards and two steals.
 
King led the team with eight rebounds and netted seven points as he went 5-for-7 at the free throw line. Also tallying seven points was Conley, who added six rebounds and two steals.
 
Texas State forced CCU to turn the ball over 18 times as half were the result of steals. Those 18 turnovers led to 21 of the Bobcats' points.
 
Next up for the Bobcats is a 7 p.m. contest on Monday at Appalachian State that will be streamed on ESPN3.
 
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.