TROY, Ala. – The Texas State men's basketball team (23-6, 12-4 Sun Belt) took care of Troy (11-16, 4-11 Sun Belt) 58-44 Thursday night at Trojan Arena. The win gives the program its 23rd regular season victory, setting a new single-season mark for Texas State in the Division I era.
 
"I thought we started slow but picked it up," said head coach Danny Kaspar. "I thought that our defense was good the whole game, but we had too many turnovers. We will have to play better if we want to win out."
 
As a unit, the Bobcats shot 40.4 percent from the floor (19-of-47) while holding the Trojans to a 30 percent clip (15-of-50). The visiting club also dominated their opponent in bench scoring (22-3), points in the paint (22-12) and outworked them on the boards, 37-27.
 
Junior guard Nijal Pearson finished with a game-high 15 points and knocked down three 3-pointers to tie Brady Richeson (1999-2003) for No. 2 all-time with 172 career made 3-point field goals. Pearson also had a team-high six rebounds and recorded one steal.
 
True freshman Mason Harrell tallied a career-high 14 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the floor and led the team with four assists.
 
"I thought Mason [Harrell] was the key to our victory tonight," Kaspar declared. "He really ran the team in Jaylen's [Shead] absence and did a fantastic job both in terms of running the team and in scoring points."
 
Senior forward Alex Hicks was the only Trojan to reach double figures in scoring with 13 points and registered a game-high eight rebounds. He also led the team with three turnovers.
 
Troy started the first half hot by shooting a perfect 3-of-3 from behind-the-arc to take a 9-4 lead. However, the Bobcats withstood the early storm and compiled an 8-0 run to take the lead thanks to Pearson's triple from the left wing. The visitor's run expanded, 20-5 including another 8-0 run to end the frame and go into the intermission with a 30-21 advantage.
 
Both teams struggled out of the gates to begin the second half, but Harrel's 3-pointer followed by Pearson's back-to-back treys kick-started what would be a Bobcat 15-2 run to extend their lead 52-35 with 7:44 left in the contest. Troy never bounced back, pulling within only 12 points as Texas State cruised to victory to remain atop the Sun Belt Conference.
 
"We had four guys miss two practices due to illness this week, so I know that they didn't quite have it tonight and yet we were still able to win," Kaspar stated. "I am proud that we fought through the adversities to pick up this victory tonight."
 
Texas State will conclude the weekend with a 6 p.m. tip-off on March 2 at South Alabama before wrapping up the regular season on March 9 at UT Arlington.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
 
• Texas State improves to 16-1 this year and 7-1 in conference play when leading after the first half.
• The Bobcats are 7-1 this year when shooting between 40-49 percent from the floor.
• TXST shot 82.4 percent (14-of-17) from the charity stripe, marking the fifth consecutive game the Bobcats have shot 80 percent or better from the line.
• The 14-point win vs. Troy is the 13th double-digit victory this season for the Bobcats and improved their record to 10-3 in road games this year.
• Harrell was a perfect 4-of-4 from the stripe.
• Eric Terry was one point shy of recording his fourth consecutive double-digit scoring performance.
 
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