PORTLAND, Ore. – Senior Tre'Larenz Nottingham and junior NIjal Pearson combined to 43 points in the Texas State men's basketball team's 82-50 victory over USC Upstate Friday evening in the Chiles Center as part of the Portland Classic. Nottingham scored a season-high 25 points and Pearson netted 18 with four three-pointers.
 
The Bobcats improve to 4-1 on the season while the Spartans drop to 1-4.
 
"It was a good team victory for us as we were able to play everybody," said head coach Danny Kaspar. "I thought our defense was very good tonight. We need to improve our efficiency on offense if we want to be a championship caliber team. We will keep working on improving in that area so we can hopefully be a strong offensive and defensive team."
 
Nottingham scored five of TXST's first eight points to take an early 8-3 lead. USCU would go on an 8-2 run over a 3:14 span to take its lone lead of the game.
 
Alonzo Sule hit a jumper in the painter at the 10:38 mark to retake the lead. The Bobcats would close the half on a 29-7 run that was capped off with Pearson converting a layup through contact to beat the halftime buzzer.
 
The closest that the Spartans would was 14 at the 9:39 mark. That came as they scored eight consecutive points.
 
Akiem Daschner scored his first career points in a Texas State uniform with 2:40 remaining. He took a deep three-pointer from the right wing that left his hand right before the shot clock expired and ended with the ball swishing through the net.
 
Nottingham finished the game 7-of-13 from the field with two made treys. He also went 9-for-11 at the charity stripe. The Moreno Valley, California native recorded a game-high and season best four steals, grabbed three rebounds and dished out two assists.
 
Pearson connected on 7-of-12 shot attempts. He grabbed five boards and dished out an assist. The Beaumont, Texas native moved up two spots on the program's career scoring list. Pearson moved past Emani Gant and Lynwood Wade into 18th-place and currently has 1,068 points.
 
Leading all players with seven assists was Jaylen Shead. Peacock ended the contest with a game-high five assists and blocked a shot for the second straight contest.
 
Off the bench, Sule netted eight points on 4-of-7 shooting. The redshirt freshman also grabbed five rebounds with three coming on the offensive glass.
 
As a team, the Bobcats made 29-of-57 (50.9%) shots, were 8-for-23 (34.8%) from beyond the arc and converted 16-of-22 (72.7%) free throws. They held USCU to 32.7 percent shooting and outrebounded the Spartans 38-28. TXST also forced 20 turnovers and tallied 19 points off of them.
 
Next up for TXST will be Portland on Saturday with tipoff scheduled for 7 p.m. CST.
 
For more information on the Texas State men's basketball team, visit the official website of Texas State Athletics at www.txstatebobcats.com, like on Facebook at Texas State Men's Basketball and follow on Instagram and Twitter at @TxStateMBB.