JONESBORO, Ark. — Despite a very productive third quarter on both ends of the court, Texas State fell into a shooting slump during the fourth as Arkansas State pulled away to pick up a 70-54 victory Saturday afternoon. 

"It's really tough to start out a game in the hole and hats off to Arkansas State for coming out with a lot of energy," said Texas State women's basketball head coach Zenarae Antoine. "I felt like our team worked hard to prepare for this game and when we got knocked down, it took us a while to get back into it and by the time we got back into it — obviously — our team did a fantastic job coming out of halftime by holding them to only six points and finding ways to start chipping away.

"But the physical piece of the game only sustained for so long to where we weren't able to close the gap to much further than what it was."

Arkansas State (7-1, 2-0) wasted little time establishing itself Saturday afternoon as the Red Wolves hurried out to a 29-14 lead after the first 10-minute period. The offensive outburst was fueled by an 11-0 scoring run over the game's first 4:36, before Kennedy Taylor ended the run by knocking down a 3-pointer at the 6:02 mark of the first. 

With 2:14 left in the quarter, Jada Stinson had extended the Red Wolves' lead to 17 at 26-9 with a jumper following a Chelsea Johnson layup off a Taylor assist. Da'Nasia Hood, who ended the night with 12 points and nine rebounds, responded with a personal 5-0 scoring, before Karolina Szydlowska answered with one of her three makes from behind the 3-point arc to close out the quarter. 

The offense started showing a little more for Texas State during the second quarter when Lauryn Thompson, who finished with a team-high 15 points, led the team with four points on 2-of-3 shooting as six different Bobcats scored during the second 10-minute stanza. 

Coming out of halftime, Texas State (4-5, 1-3) turned up the defensive pressure as the Bobcats held Arkansas State to 18.8 percent (3-16) from the field. While clamping down on defense, Thompson took over on the offensive end as the redshirt-sophomore scored a team-high eight points during the quarter. After trailing by 19 at the 8:18 mark of the third quarter, Texas State trailed by only seven at 50-43 five minutes later following a pair of free throws from Taylor. 

With momentum on their side entering the fourth quarter, Texas State defense, again, stepped up and held Arkansas State to only 20.0 percent (2-10) from the field, but the team was whistled for nine fouls — after having only four throughout the game's first three quarters — which resulted in Arkansas State making 12 of 15 free throw attempts during the 10-minute period after entering the quarter 1 of 2 from the line. 

Despite Arkansas State not making a field goal attempt during the game's final 5:44, Texas State fell into a shooting slump of its own from the 6:15 mark of the quarter that lasted until 1:26 remaining. The Bobcats hit only one of its final 10 attempts from the court during that span. 

Texas State will return to action next weekend when the Bobcats host Little Rock (5-4, 1-1) on Friday, Jan. 15 and Saturday, Jan. 16 with both games starting at 4 p.m. and being broadcasted on ESPN+.