NEW ORLEANS – The Texas State men's basketball team, the ninth seed, plays in the opening game of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament on Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. against eighth seeded Coastal Carolina in Lakefront Arena.
Heading into the tournament the Bobcats are 14-17 overall and concluded conference play with a 7-11 record. The Chanticleers also went 14-17 and had an 8-10 mark in the SBC.
Bill Culhane and
Brant Freeman will have the call on the radio with the game being broadcast on 103.1 FM The Zone out of Austin and KTSW 89.9 FM out of San Marcos. Fans can also listen to the game through the TuneIn Radio app on their mobile device. Live stats will be available for the game with a link on the team's schedule page.
The game will be streamed on ESPN3 with Matt Stewart (play-by-play) and Bob Donewald (color) on the call.
Nijal Pearson, an All-Sun Belt third team selection, paces TXST in scoring (15.1), made three-pointers (57) and steals (42). His 5.9 rebounds per game is tied for the most on the team with
Immanuel King, who is putting up 9.2 points per game on a team best 59.2 percent shooting.
Tre'Larenz Nottingham is contributing 7.7 ppg on the season while putting up 10.5 ppg in conference action. The junior is dishing out a 2.6 assists per game and has made 45 three-pointers. Also connecting on 45 treys with a team-high 39.1 percent from beyond the arc is
Tyler Blount.
Entering the tournament averaging 7.1 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game is
Alex Peacock. He is coming off a perfect 10-for-10 game from the field to increase his shooting percentage to 50.7.
Coming off the bench,
Eric Terry is netting 5.5 ppg with 2.7 rpg.
Nedeljko Prijovic is putting up 4.3 ppg with 3.5 rpg. Both
Shelby Adams and
Isaiah Gurley are contributing 3.6 ppg.
Scouting Coastal Carolina
Coastal Carolina is coming off a regular season finale loss at Appalachian State after winning its previous three contests. When playing in neutral site games the Chanticleers are 2-1 with victories over Iona (89-84) and UTSA (83-69) and a loss to Vermont (80-67). All three games took place in the Island of the Bahamas Showcase.
Pacing CCU offensively is Zac Cuthbertson at 14.5 ppg. He is shooting 44.6 percent from the field, connected on 28.0 percent of his three-point attempts with 26 made treys and a team-high 79.1 percent at the free throw line. He paces the team with 22 blocks and is second with 6.8 rpg and 28 steals.
Jaylen Shaw comes in dishing out 5.5 apg while netting 14.4 ppg on 40.9 percent shooting. He has made 32 three-pointers at a 30.8 clip. The senior point guard leads the Chanticleers with 51 steals.
Also putting up double-digits in points is Demario beck (10.0) and Artur Labinowicz (11.1). Beck is grabbing a team-high 7.3 rpg and has rejected 22 shots. Labinowicz has made a team best 50 triples and is shooting 34.7 percent from long distance.
Top players off the bench are Amidou Bamba (5.8 ppg, 3.3 rpg), Josh Coleman (3.5 ppg, 3.9 rpg), Tyrell Gumbs-Frater (4.9 ppg, 16 3FG) and Ajay Sanders (5.0 ppg, 3.6 rpg).
All-Time vs. Chanticleers
Texas State leads the all-time series with Coastal Carolina 3-2. Since the Chanticleers joined the SBC, the series is tied 2-2 after the teams split both meetings this season with the road team winning each time. The Bobcats won 53-48 on New Year's Eve while CCU won a 56-54 overtime contest in Strahan Coliseum.
Once before the two program met on a neutral court. That was on Nov. 30, 1996 in Muncie, Indiana as part of the Cardinal Varsity Club Classic. TXST won 74-58 in the first ever meeting between the teams.
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.
