MONROE, La. – In the final game of the regular season, the Texas State men's basketball team held off ULM 70-65 Saturday afternoon in the Fant-Ewing Coliseum. The Bobcats had to wait nearly an hour after the game to find out that they would be the fourth seed and earn a bye in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament thanks to South Alabama's victory over Arkansas State.
 
TXST concludes the regular season with an 18-12 overall record and 11-7 in conference play while the Warhawks finished 8-23 overall and 2-16 in conference play. Ended the regular season in a three-way tie for third with Arkansas State and Georgia Southern, the Bobcats lost out on the tiebreaker for the third seed to the Eagles but held the tiebreaker over the Red Wolves with the victory in the teams' lone meeting.

"This is a very sweet victory for us," said head coach Danny Kaspr. "I am proud of our players bouncing back after the disappointing loss to Louisiana. They showed toughness and grit, and I couldn't be more proud of them."
 
Nijal Pearson opened up the scoring for TXST with two straight three-pointers for a 6-2 lead. ULM answered back with two triples to take its first lead of the game. That advantage was short lived as Bobby Conley hit a three-pointer from the left corner to make it 9-8 Bobcats four and a half minutes into the contest.
 
Coming out of the first media timeout, the Warhawks scored five consecutive points. A three-plus minute scoring drought was ended when Tyler Blount hit a jumper from the free throw line after a pump fake to get his defender in the air at the three-point line.
 
Following an old-fashion three-point play by ULM, Ojai Black hit a mid-range jumper to start a 13-2 run. Capping the run was Kavin Gilder-Tilbury with a long trey.
 
The Warhawks responded with seven straight points to take a 25-24 lead. Gilder-Tilbury threw up a desperation shot just before the shot clock ended for a big trey and put the Bobcats back in front by two with 3:33 left in the first half.
 
ULM came back with a three-pointer and two free throws to retake the lead. A hook shot by Maxwell Starwood followed by a trey from Tyler Blount in the right corner put TXST ahead 32-30. Gilder-Tilbury knocked down two free throws with 42.0 left in the half for the final points of the period and give the Bobcats a 34-30 advantage.
 
After the Warhawks opened the second half with a layup, the Bobcats rattled off six consecutive points to go up 40-32. Knocking down shots for TXST was Immanuel King, Black and Pearson. At the 14:53 mark, Pearson knocked down his third long distance shot of the game. ULM answered with a 10-0 spanning 4:18 that was snapped on an old-fashion three-point play from Black.
 
Gildler-Tilbury knocked down a jumper coming off an in-bound pass to kick start a 7-2 scoring burst for the Bobcats and put them in front for good. A three-pointer from Marvin Jean-Pierre and two charity stripe conversions by Coppola cut the advantage to 59-58 with a little under four minutes to play. That would be as close as the Warhawks would get as TXST knocked down 7-of-10 at the line and Black hit two big bucket over the final 3:43.
 
Pearson scored a game-high 17 points on 5-of-10 shooting. The freshman made three treys for the second game in-a-row and was 4-for-5 at the free throw line. He also grabbed four rebounds and led the Bobcats with four assists and two steals.
 
Gilder-Tilbury added 16 points with a 5-for-9 shooting night and was 2-for-3 from beyond the arc. He now has 504 points this season to rank 16th in a single-season in program history.
 
Also reaching double-figures was Black with 15 points. The senior point guard was 5-for-8 from the floor and nailed 5-of-6 free throw attempts.
 
Leading the way with a career-high seven rebounds off the bench was Maxwell Starwood. He netted eight points and dished out two assists.
 
In the upcoming Sun Belt Conference Tournament, Texas State will play on Friday at 2 p.m. in Lakefront Arena. The Bobcats will player the winner of Arkansas State and ULM game that takes place Wednesday afternoon.
 
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.