NEW ORLEANS – The Texas State women's basketball team (22-8, 14-4 SBC) survived a scare, defeating Coastal Carolina (17-14, 10-8 SBC) by a score of 78-69 inside Lakefront Arena in the 2018 Sun Belt Conference Championship quarterfinal round on Thursday evening.

The victory gives Texas State 22 wins this season, the most victories of the Division I era in program history. The school record for wins came in the 1974-75 season, a team that finished the year with a 27-13 mark.

"This was a really tough matchup for us," head coach Zenarae Antoine said. "We split the two regular season games and were fortunate to win on our home court. Coastal Carolina is a tremendously talented team. We did not expect them to come out and play man-to-man, we had prepared for their matchup zone this week so that was an adjustment we had to make. I think our young women adjusted well, especially in the second half."

Texas State trailed at intermission for just the 10th time all season by a score of 40-38. Coastal Carolina scored the first five points of the third quarter to push the Chanticleer lead up to seven points, CCU's largest lead of the contest. After calling a quick timeout, the Bobcats responded with a 14-2 run to take a 52-47 lead with a shade over three minutes remaining in the third quarter. TXST never relinquished the lead.

Senior forward Ti'Aira Pitts poured in 17 points for the Bobcats, including eight in the first half. Her efforts, along with six points off the bench from Zelor Massaquoi, kept Texas State in the game in the first 20 minutes of action. Pitts was lethal in the pick-and-pop game, knocking down 5-of-8 shots from behind the 3-point line. Her five made triples matched the entire CCU team and established a new career-best. She also chipped in four rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block.

Sun Belt Player of the Year Taeler Deer paced the Bobcats, scoring a game-high 22 points. The senior guard converted on 7-of-15 shots from the floor and 8-of-10 free throw attempts. Deer added nine assists, her 13th game of the season with eight or more dimes, six rebounds, a pair of steals and two blocks.

Toshua Leavitt extended her NCAA lead from the 3-point line, making three shots from deep. For the season, Leavitt has buried 128 3-pointers, one shy of tying the single-season NCAA record of 129 made triples established by Brianna Butler of Syracuse in 2015-16. The junior guard also made 7-of-9 free throw attempts to score 18 points.

Brooke Holle, the lone Bobcat to play all 40 minutes, scored 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the floor. Holle drilled a pair of 3-pointers, including a baseline triple with 5:16 remaining to extend the Bobcat lead to five points. The sophomore ripped down five rebounds and added a pair of steals.

As a team, the Bobcats assisted on 20 of the teams 26 made field goal attempts. The Cats committed 11 turnovers while forcing the Chanticleers into 18 giveaways. Texas State turned the 18 takeaways into 28 points, outscoring Coastal Carolina 28-7 on points off turnovers.

Up next, Texas State will take on the winner of No. 3 UTA and No. 6 Louisiana in the semifinals. The Mavericks and Ragin' Cajuns play the final quarterfinal matchup of the day on Thursday night. The game will be streamed live on WatchESPN/ESPN3. The full bracket can be viewed here.

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