SAN MARCOS, Texas – For the first time since 1980 and the program joined the NCAA, the Texas State men's basketball team won a postseason game with a 70-60 victory over Lamar Thursday night in Strahan Coliseum in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament. The last postseason win for the Bobcats took place on Feb. 29, 1980 in the NAIA District 4 Playoffs at home against Southwestern University.
 
With the win, Texas State improved to 21-13 on the season while the Cardinals conclude their season at 19-15. This season the Bobcats have defeated 19 Division I opponents, the most since taking down 22 in the 1993-94 campaign.


 
Down 6-4 just over five minutes into the game, Immanuel King converted a layup to tie the score and a minute late Marlin Davis hit a mid-range jumper to put the Bobcats in front for the first time in the game. Texas State eventually extended its advantage to 12-8 after a layup from Davis.
 
Lamar scored the next five points to take the lead back halfway through the first period. Tyler Blount knocked down a three-pointer and Kavin Gilder-Tilbury converted two free throws to put the Bobcats in the lead by four again. It was short lived as the Cardinals went on a quick 5-0 run for an 18-17 advantage.
 
Five consecutive points from Nedlejko Prijovic started an 11-1 run for Texas State. Two free throws courtesy of Bobby Conley with a second left on the clock sent the Bobcats into halftime leading 35-23.


 
Texas State opened the second half with two alley-oop layups from Conley and Gilder-Tilbury with both passes from Nijal Pearson.

Lamar was able to whittle its deficit to 46-40 at the 10:33 mark. That is when Pearson caught fire as he scored the next 13 points for the Bobcats behind three consecutive made treys to put the game out of reach.
 
Pearson led all scorers with 18 points, all coming in the second half. The freshman was 6-for-10 from the field and 5-of-8 on long distance attempts. He also dished out a game-high five assists.
 
Gilder-Tilbury recorded his fourth double-double of the season and his career after netting 14 points and grabbing a career-high 13 rebounds. He now has 509 rebounds in his career that places him 19th in school history.

Finishing just shy of his first career double-double was Prijovic with a 13-point (career-high), 9-rebound performance.
 
Adding nine points and grabbing four rebounds was Conley. King blocked a game best three shots. Also finishing with two rejections apiece were Gilder-Tilbury and Prijovic.
 
The Bobcats held Lamar to 40.4 percent shooting and won the battle of the boards 37-26. Offensively, Texas State finished 23-for-47 (48.9%) from the field, connected on 7-of-19 (36.8%) three-pointers and was 17-for-25 (68.0%) at the charity stripe.
 
The next opponent for the Bobcats is still to be determined by the CIT. The date, time and location will be announced later tonight or sometime tomorrow.
 
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.