LAFAYETTE, La. — During the preseason, Texas State was selected by the conference's coaches to finish fifth in the West Division of the Sun Belt Conference, but Saturday night, the Bobcats played like the top team before two last-second 3-pointers were unable to fall as the Ragin' Cajuns held on to win 66-60. 

"This is a tough string of loses on the road, especially knowing our team was able to compete — in my opinion — the top of the conference and fall just a bit short," said Texas State head coach Zenarae Antoine. "I do appreciate our athletes gave it all they got and I also recognize that in order to move forward, we are going to need more help off of our bench because bench production is important. 

"Moving forward, we don't have that long to turn around and corrected, but I'm encouraged because we have a rather youthful team that are going to put themselves into position. It's still January, so we still have a long way to go before the end of the season."

Texas State (6-7, 3-5) started the game on a mission as a quick 5-0 spurt in the game's first 82 seconds forced Louisiana (7-5, 6-1) to make an entire five-player substitution. The substitution pattern didn't faze the Bobcats as Da'Nasia Hood made her first basket of the game to push TXST's lead to 7-0 three minutes into the game. 

The Texas State defense held the Ragin' Cajuns without a point until Makayia Hallmon hit a free throw at the 6:37 mark of the first quarter. Twenty seconds later, Tamera Johnson connected on Louisiana's first field goal on the game after Hood made it 9-3 TXST. The Bobcats ultimately were knocking of the door on a double-digit lead at 14-5 less than five minutes into the game following a second-chance layup from Lauryn Thompson. 

By the end of the first quarter, the Texas State defense had forced eight Louisiana turnovers and took an 16-11 lead into the second. An 8-0 scoring run for the Ragin' Cajuns pushed the home team ahead — for the first time — at the 7:20 mark of the second quarter. 

However, the Bobcats struck back with two minutes remaining before halftime as Gabby Standifer went on a personal 8-0 scoring run, including knocking down back-to-back 3-point attempts, to send the visitors into the locker rooms for halftime with a 30-27 advantage on the scoreboard. 

Ja'Kayla Bowie and Thompson quickly extended the Texas State lead to seven in the opening minutes of the third quarter with back-to-back layups with a 30-second span. Later in the quarter, both teams traded the lead on four-straight possession until Alexandria Goodly gave Louisiana a five-point lead at 45-40 with 1:12 to play in the quarter. Taylor cut the deficit with a 3-pointer, but Ty'reona Doucet and Hallmon combined to sink two baskets on back-to-back possessions to send the home team into the fourth with a six-point lead. 

Bowie made it a one-possession game early when she converted an old-fashion three-point play. She cut the deficit, again, minutes later when she answered a Doucet free with with one of her own. 

With 2:23 remaining in the game, Louisiana held a 59-51 lead until Bowie sank a 3-point shot to make it a five-point game. A 3-pointer from Hood cancelled out three free throws from the Ragin' Cajuns, before a second one from the junior forward made it 64-60 with 45 seconds left. 

Brandi Williams pushed the Bobcat deficit to 66-60 with 17 seconds left, but 3-point shot attempts from Taylor and Hood over the game's last 12 seconds were unable to through the net. 

Texas State will return to action on Tuesday, Feb. 2 when the Bobcats play Little Rock at Strahan Arena at 6 p.m. The game is a make-up from the series postponement two weekends ago when the Trojans were forced to postpone due to COVID-19 protocols.