Box Score PENSACOLA, Fla. — Seven days after scoring a season-high 85 points at ULM, the Texas State Bobcats surpassed that mark in the opening round of the 2020-21 Sun Belt Conference Tournament as the Bobcats beat Georgia Southern, 94-61, to advance to the second round. 

The 94 points scored were the most by a Texas State women's basketball team in a Sun Belt Conference Tournament game as the previous high was 78 — twice — against Georgia State in 2014 and Coastal Carolina in 2018. The scoring output also marked the most points scored by a Texas State women's basketball team in a conference tournament game regardless of conference affiliation. 

"I said this to my coaching staff, but not the players before the game: win or lose, I'm really proud of their effort and everything they've done to this point, because I know they're doing the best they can," said Texas State women's basketball head coach Zenarae Antoine. "To do it with this exclamation mark in a first-round game, it's really exciting for our program. 

"It's March, so everyone's records are 0-0. I think the young women did an excellent job on the scouting report — we really pride ourselves on being pretty scout heavy — and that's what this team did. I think the confidence just continued to build as one stop on the defensive end turned into consecutive."

The game opened competitively as Georgia Southern (11-13, 5-9) got the scoreboard first with a second-chance layup 30 seconds into the game, before Ja'Kayla Bowie tied it over a minute later with her first basket of the game. After the two squads traded pairs of free throws, then the Bobcats (11-10, 7-8) started to pull away as Gabby Standifer knocked down three free throws that setup a 17-4 scoring run for Texas State throughout the rest of the first quarter. 

The Texas State scoring run didn't stop when the second quarter started as Bowie and Da'Nasia Hood hit back-to-back baskets to make it a 17-point game two minutes into the quarter.

By the 6:48 mark, the Bobcats were up 20 following a Lauryn Thompson layup and a Hood 3-pointer. Avionne Alexader made it 23 when she hit her first triple of the contest 27 seconds later.

The score difference reached as many as 33 — on two separate occasions — during the second quarter as Hood knocked down another 3-point shot at the 1:21 mark, before converting a second-chance free throw with 36 second left before halftime. 

Coming out of the locker rooms, Alexander pushed the Bobcat lead to 35 with her second 3-pointer of the game. Thompson gave her team the same margin, again, when she hit the first of two free throws midway through the quarter. 

The Texas State lead reached a game-high 30 on a Kennedy Taylor 3-pointer with 1:38 left in the third quarter, then, moments later, Taylor's second 3-point tied the program record for most points in a Sun Belt Conference postseason tournament game set the in the Bobcats' 78-44 win over Georgia State on March 12, 2014. Taylor's third triple within a minute of game action broke the record as Texas State went into the fourth quarter with an 81-37 lead. 

The lead ballooned to 48 at 89-41 on a Sierra Dickson fast-break jumper with 7:15 left in the game. 

With the win, Texas State advances to Saturday's second-round action to play the Troy Trojans, which earned the top seed out of the East Division, at 11 a.m.