SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State women's basketball team (8-7, 3-0 Sun Belt) overcame a halftime deficit for the first time this season to upend the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (8-6, 0-3 Sun Belt), 73-58, on Thursday night at Strahan Arena.

The win improves Texas State to 3-0 in league play for the first time since the Bobcats started 5-0 in Southland Conference games during the 2007-08 season. The Bobcats concluded the 2007-08 season as SLC regular-season champions and played in the 2008 Women's National Invitation Tournament.

"We stressed with our team coming out of the halftime break that we needed to own the first four minutes of the third quarter," head coach Zenarae Antoine said. "Honestly, they owned all 10 minutes of that particular quarter. I am very proud of that effort."

Texas State was led in scoring by junior guard Brooke Holle. She tallied a game-high 19 points on 6-of-15 shooting and yanked down nine rebounds in 39 minutes of run. Holle also connected on 5-of-6 attempts from the free throw line. Senior guard Toshua Leavitt added 16 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the 3-point line. She also chipped in four assists.

In the post, Texas State received big-time performances from sophomore forward Jayla Johnson and senior forward Zandra Emanuel. Johnson notched 12 points and grabbed six rebounds in 27 minutes on the court. Emanuel nabbed a game-high 13 rebounds, including nine on the offensive end of the floor. She tallied eight points.

Coastal Carolina boasted three players in double-figures, all scoring 10 points. Junior guard DJ Williams entered the game averaging 18.1 points a night, good for second in the league. She struggled to get anything going offensively and finished the night with 10 points on 3-of-11 shooting. Junior center Naheria Hamilton registered a double-double with 10 points and 13 boards, while sophomore guard Kaylin West totaled 10 points in 22 minutes off the bench.  

CCU jumped out to an early lead, scoring five points in the first 53 seconds of play on a pair of buckets from junior guard Torrie Cash. The Chants then pushed the lead out to 13-6 with 2:25 left in the first stanza, before the Bobcats ended the quarter on a 6-1 run capped by a floater from Leavitt just before the buzzer sounded. TXST trailed 14-13 after one.

The two teams spent most of the second quarter trading body punches. The Bobcats ran the lead out to six points on two occasions, the first coming at 23-17 and the second at 26-20. Both six-point leads came off pure jump shots from freshman forward Da'Nasia Hood. She finished with eight points off the Bobcat bench. However, Coastal would not go away. The visitors mounted a 12-0 run that spanned the final 4:08 of the half and carried a 32-26 advantage into the intermission.

Texas State ratcheted up the defensive pressure coming out of the halftime break. Coastal managed just nine points in the third 10-minute frame and shot 2-of-14 from the floor. Conversely, TXST attacked the rim, scoring 14 points inside the paint in the quarter. The Bobcats turned a six-point halftime deficit into a 10-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Coastal hung around until Holle drained a pair of back-breaking 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to extend the Bobcat lead to 15 points at the 5:47 mark in the fourth. Williams answered with a 3-pointer of her own for CCU before Leavitt stripped any hope the Chants had away with back-to-back 3-point field goals. The second gave the Cats a 70-52 lead with 2:18 to play, a lead that would never settle below 14 points before the final count of 73-58 was reached.

Up next, the Bobcats take on the Appalachian State Mountaineers with a schedule tip of 2 p.m. on Jan. 12 at Strahan Arena.

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