Men's Basketball | 11/11/2017 5:28:00 PM
SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State men's basketball team opens its 2017-18 season Sunday afternoon in the state of Colorado. The Bobcats will take on Air Force at 3 p.m. CT in the Clune Arena in the first game of the Men Against Breast Cancer Showcase.
The contest will be streamed on ESPN3 with Trey Bender providing the play-by-play and the analyst being Richie Schueler. Live stats and audio will also be available for the game with
Bill Culhane calling the game on 1300 AM The Zone out of Austin. Fans can also listen to the game on the iHeartRadio app and TuneIn Radio app on mobile devices.
Nijal Pearson is the top returner from last year's 22-win team. The sophomore averaged 13.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.4 steals per game. He set a program record with 1,182 minutes played and a freshman TXST record with 477 points.
The only other returner from last season is
Immanuel King. The Rocky Mount, North Carolina native started the final 23 games of the season on his way to putting up 5.6 ppg and 4.6 rpg. He paced the team with 38 blocks that also tied for the seventh most in a season ever by a Bobcat.
Looking to make a major impact in their second collegiate seasons are
Marlin Davis and Prijovic. Davis looks to step into the starting point guard role after the graduation of Ojai Black. In the back-up role last year, he played 13.3 minutes per contest with 3.2 ppg, 1.5 apg and 1.2 rpg. Prijovic put up 4.2 ppg and 3.7 rpg while splitting time as the back-up at power forward and center. The Serbian has been battling for starting power forward spot with junior college transfer
Alex Peacock.
Other returners for TXST are seniors
Tyler Blount and
Deris Duncan, and sophomore
Eric Terry who redshirted last year.
Scouting Air Force
Air Force went 12-21 last season with a 4-14 record in the Mountain West Conference. The Falcons were picked to finish 11th in the 11-team league in the preseason poll. Last season they averaged 73.1 ppg, the sixth best single-season mark in school history, thanks to a 36.3 three-point percentage the was the 11th best in program history. At home, AF was 11-7 with a 7-2 mark in non-conference games.
Jacob Van is the top returner for the Falcons. Last season he scored 10.6 ppg and led the team with 2.8 apg and 83.6 free throw percentage. He connected on 39.1 percent of his three-pointers with his 34 makes tying for the team lead among returning players.
Trevor Lyons netted 7.4 ppg and was second on the squad with 2.4 apg. He paced all players with 47 steals. Ryan Manning made 34 treys on his way to averaging 6.3 ppg in 31 contests with three starts.
Blocking 11 shots last season was Lavelle Scottie. The sophomore forward played in all 33 games on his way to averaging 5.4 ppg and 3.2 rpg.
Overall, AF shot 43.6 percent from the field and made 71.7 percent of its free throws. The Falcons grabbed 34.8 rpg and held a +0.5 rebounding margin. Defensively, they gave up 75.1 ppg and allowed opponents to make 45.7 percent of their shots and 36.4 percent from beyond the arc.
All-Time Series
Sunday will be the first-ever meeting between the two programs. Texas State is 5-6 all-time against teams from the state of Colorado. Air Force will be the eight of the 11 MWC teams for the Bobcats to play. TXST will have yet to play Fresno State, Nevada and UNLV.
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 Instagram and Twitter at @TxStateMBB and like on Facebook at /TexasStateMensBasketball.
