SAN MARCOS, Texas — It took nearly 300 days before the Texas State women's basketball team could play a game inside the friendly confines of Strahan Arena, but the Bobcats made the wait worth it as they earned a 69-53 win over Lamar on Saturday afternoon. 

"I was really excited about our student-athletes and program having an opportunity to play here at home," said Bobcat head coach Zenarae Antoine. "I feel the players really responded well to that, too, because you just never know what the nerves are going to be like heading into the first home game of each season. This is now the second time the team has really surprised me with how composed they can be.

"The first thing I looked at — and wanted to look at first — on the stat sheet was the third quarter. This is now back-to-back games where we have dominated the third quarter."

Texas State (3-2) attempted to put the game away during the second quarter with a 10-0 run to take a 21-12 lead with 4:32 remaining in the first half, but Lamar (1-6) responded with its own scoring run to send the game into halftime tied at 22-22. 

Coming out of the locker rooms, Lauryn Thompson, who was a rebound shy of a second consecutive double-double in as many games, made a jumper in the paint to push Texas State ahead 24-22 less than 50 seconds in the third quarter. Da'Nasia Hood, who also finished a rebound shy of her second double-double of the season, went on a personal 5-0 scoring run, before Thompson extended the Bobcat edge to seven with a pair of three throws just minutes later. 

Hood, who finished with a game-high 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting, gave Texas State its largest lead of the contest — at the time — at 39-28 following an and-one opportunity. Free throws helped balloon the Bobcat lead as Kennedy Taylor, Hood and Keslyn King combined to go 5 of 7 from the line over the next three minutes. Combining those five points with another Hood layup and a King fast-break jumper and Texas State took a 48-34 lead into the fourth quarter.

"Getting to the basket and being more aggressive were really some things that was working well for me tonight," said Hood, who had a team-high 13 points during the third quarter. "I've been trying to work on having better third quarters and just finding different ways to score when I can't get my shot off from behind the 3-point arc. I'm really just focusing on other ways to score."

Hood picked up right where she left off just seconds into the fourth quarter as the junior forward converted a layup attempt to extend Texas State's lead to 50-34. The Bobcat lead was cut to nine at the 4:21 mark when Lamar made a pair of free throws, but it was pushed back out to 15 following back-to-back baskets from Taylor and Thompson.

Hood rounded out her scoring performance by knocking down a pair of free throws with 33 seconds left in the game to seal Texas State making 28 shots from the free throw line in the win. 

Texas State will return to action on Friday, Jan. 1 at 4 p.m. when the Bobcats open Sun Belt Conference action by hosting Louisiana.