SAN MARCOS, Texas – Nijal Pearson hit a three-point shot from the right wing to lead the Texas State men's basketball team to a 64-62 victory over Louisiana in a Sun Belt Conference game Saturday at Strahan Arena.
 
Forced to play without starting forward Alex Peacock and his backup Quentin Scott due to an illness, Texas State (22-6, 11-4 in the Sun Belt) played its final home game of the season with sophomore forward Akiem Daschner in its starting lineup. Daschner responded with six critical points in the second half to go along with seven rebounds.
 
Texas State's lone senior playing in the game was Tre'Larenz Nottingham, who led the Bobcats with 17 points. Pearson and Eric Terry added 13 points, while Mason Harrell came off the bench to score seven points, and Alonzo Sule added a team-high 10 rebounds. Jaylen Shead also netted six points and tied Pearson for the team lead with three assists.
 
Cedric Russell scored a game-high 25 points to lead Louisiana. The only other Ragin' Cajun to score in double figures was JaKeenan Gant, who finished with 13 points and a game-high 17 rebounds. Marcus Stroman added eight points and seven assists, and Justin Miller finished with seven points.

Texas State jumped out to an early 6-0 lead and led throughout most of the game despite missing Peacock and Scott. The Bobcats were leading 18-17 when they used a 17-6 run in the final 11:57 of the first half to take a 35-23 lead into halftime.
 
Harrell scored the first five points in the run before Pearson hit Terry in the middle of the lane for a jumper and came back to net a three-point shot himself on Texas State's next possession.
 
Louisiana scored four points on free throws before Tre'Larenz Nottingham nailed a three-point shot from the corner and Harrell added a layup to close out the scoring in the first half.
 
Daschner opened the second half scoring his first three points in the game with a jumper from the right wing and a free throw. Terry also added six more points as the Bobcats opened the second half outscoring Louisiana 11-5, to take their biggest lead in the game, 46-28, with 17:04 left to play.
 
However, Louisiana came storming back in the next 14 minutes as they closed to within 61-60 with 3:03 left to play. The two teams didn't score again until Stroman threw an alley-oop pass to Gant for a slam dunk to give the Ragin' Cajuns a 62-61 lead.
 
The Bobcats answered 19 seconds later when Daschner caught the ball at the free-throw line and passed to Pearson for his game-winning shot on the right wing.
 
Louisiana (16-11, 7-7 in Sun Belt) had a chance to win the game, but Justin Miller's three-point shot on the left wing with one second left was wide of the basket.
 
The win puts Texas State in sole possession of first place in the Sun Belt Conference standings with an 11-4 mark. The Bobcats have a one-game lead on Georgia State and Georgia Southern, who both have 10-5 league records.
 
Texas State closes out the regular season with three straight road games. The Bobcats travel to Troy on Feb. 28 and play at South Alabama on Mar. 2 and at UT Arlington on Mar. 9.