NEW ORLEANS – For nearly 14 minutes spanning the first and second halves, the Texas State men's basketball team held ULM scoreless on its way to a 63-51 victory Friday afternoon in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament Quarterfinals. It is the third straight year the Bobcats have won a game in the conference tournament and first appearance in the semifinals.
 
Texas State improved to 19-12 on the season while the Warhawks conclude their season at 9-24.



After ULM hit a three-pointer on the opening possession of the game, Kavin Gilder-Tilbury countered with a triple of his own the next time down the court. Two 1-for-2 trips at the free throw line from Immanuel King gave TXST a 5-3 advantage, however, the Warhawks responded with a 9-0 run that was snapped by two free throws by Marlin Davis.
 
ULM eventually took an 18-10 lead after Travis Munnings got a layup to fall. Nedeljko Prijovic answered with a trey and Marlin Davis made a layup to cut the deficit to three. Following a short jumper in the paint by the Warhawks' Sam Alabakis, their pointer guard Nick Coppola picked up his third foul of the game and sat the rest of the half.
 
With Coppola on the bench, the Bobcats' defense held ULM scoreless over the final 7:26. Nijal Pearson had a put back bucket for the final points of the period after a steal by Davis to send TXST into the intermission leading 30-20.
 
The Bobcats defense continued to shut down the Warhawks in the second half as ULM did not score until 13:29 on the clock. Overall, TXST held the Warhawks scoreless for 13:57 on 0-for-18 shooting while scoring 27 points.
 
A layup from Prijovic with 8:09 remaining gave the Bobcats their largest lead of the game of 24 (52-28) for the third and final time.
 
Pearson filled up the stat sheet with 16 points, six rebounds, five assists and a career-high five steals to led TXST in every category. The freshman made 6-of-10 shots with a three-pointer and converted all three of his free throw attempts.
 
Black added nine point as he went 3-for-5 from the field. He also grabbed four rebounds and dished out two assists. King set a career-high with four blocks
 
Coming off the bench, both Davis and Prijovic netted seven points apiece. Prijovic added five rebounds and two assists.
 
The Bobcats held ULM to 35.6 percent shooting and 19.2 percent (5-26) from long range. Offensively, TXST made 22-of-46 (47.8%) from the field, were 4-for-8 on three-pointers and were 15-of-22 (68.2%) at the charity stripe. The Bobcats also won the battle of the boards 36-31.
 
Next up for Texas State is rival UTA at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday in the SBC Semifinals.
 
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.