MONROE, La. — The Texas State women's basketball team closed out its 2020-21 regular season with a convincing 68-56 win over ULM on Saturday, Feb. 27. 

For the second straight game, the Bobcats (10-10, 7-8) flirted with the 50-percent shooting line as Texas State went 23 of 47 from the field and knocked down 19 of 27 free throws, including Kennedy Taylor going a perfect 8 for 8 from the charity stripe. 

Taylor's scoring also came from other elements of her game as the 5-foot-3 junior point guard knocked down a pair of 3-point shots and made three other shots from inside the arc to cap a 5-for-8 shooting night en route to a game-high 20 points. Da'Nasia Hood and Lauryn Thompson followed Taylor with double-digit points as the junior forward went for 14 while the redshirt-sophomore forward accounted for 12 points. 

Ja'Kayla Bowie, while coming up two points shy of being the fourth Bobcat in double figures, did, however, bring down a game-high seven rebounds in 33 minutes as a starter. 

The two teams opened the game by trading 3-point baskets, before the Bobcats went on an 11-0 run over the next six minutes of game action that was capped by a Hood layup. Of TXST's 14 points by the 3:58 mark of the first quarter, Taylor accounted for 10. 

By the end of the first, Texas State held a comfortable 19-8 lead following ULM's Whitney Goins splitting a pair of free throws. That lead was quickly extended by two when Tianna Eaton converted a second-chance driving layup a minute into the second quarter. 

ULM (3-19, 1-15) cut its deficit to 11 with 3:43 left to play before halftime, but Bowie and Hood extended it back out to 15 moments later. Avionne Alexander gave Texas State its biggest lead — at the time — of the night when she hit a buzzer-beating jumper at the end of the second quarter to send the teams into the locker rooms for halftime with the Bobcats holding a 37-20 advantage on the scoreboard. 

The Texas State lead grew to 20 at 46-26 with 3:50 left to play in the third quarter after Taylor sank two free throws. Seconds later, though, she pushed it to 22 when a driving layup off a turnover. Bowie, like she did in the first half, contributed to the TXST lead with a layup in the closing seconds of the third quarter. 

ULM opened the fourth quarter by holding Texas State without a point for the first 4:33 and managed to cut its deficit to nine until Taylor and Hood combined to go on a 6-0 scoring run over the next minute of game time. The Warhawks, again, cut it to single digits at 62-54 with 40 seconds left in the game, but four free throws from Hood pushed it back to 12. 

ULM's Gara Beth Self and Bowie traded two free throws each in the game's final nine seconds. 

Texas State will now turn its attention to the 2021 Sun Belt Conference Championship tournament and will travel to Pensacola, Fla., as the No. 4 seed out of the West Division.