BATON ROUGE, La. – The Texas State men's basketball team (1-1) came out and put together a solid first half but a hot-shooting LSU (2-0) second half was too much as the Tigers claimed an 83-59 win Friday night at the Pte Maravich Assembly Center.
 
Down 8-4, Texas State scored 10 straight points with a key basket being a Caleb Asberry three-point to beat the shot clock and put TXST back in front during the stretch.
 
Mason Harrell hit an off-balance triple just before the shot clock expired to put TXST ahead 21-18. However, the Tigers answers with a three-pointer of their own and followed with a jumper to go back in front by two.
 
Three consecutive made treys from Dylan Dawson, Isiah Small and Asberry put the Bobcats back ahead and with their largest lead of the first half at 30-23.
 
A three-pointer from Drue Drinnon and an alley-oop from Small to Nighael Ceaser capped off the scoring for Texas State in first half. LSU was able to convert an old-fashion three-point play to send the game into halftime with the Bobcats leading 37-32.
 
The Tigers opened the second half by scoring 17 of the first 21 points of the second half. An Asberry jumper and two free throws by Ceasar cut the deficit to 49-47.
 
Small would get fouled while shooting with a chance to tie the game but both were off the mark. LSU followed with an 11-0 run that was ended by Nate Martin dunk.
 
The Bobcats would cut the Tigers' lead to 12 twice with the last coming on a layup by Asberry with 7:14 left on the clock. However, a hot shooting second half by LSU was too much to overcome.
 
Leading the way for Texas State was Small with 13 points and nine rebounds. Asberry added 12 points and Harrell contributed 11 and dished out a team-high four assists.
 
Next up for the Bobcats is Vanderbilt on Sunday in Nashville. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. on the SEC Network+ and ESPN+.