SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State men's basketball team began its home slate with a 71-53 victory Thursday night over Mid-America Christian at Strahan Arena. Prior to the game, banners for the 2021-22 Sun Belt Conference regular season title and NIT appearance were unveiled in the rafters.
 
With the win, TXST improved to 1-1 on the season while the contest was an exhibition for the Evangels.

"It's good to be back at Strahan Arena in front of the home crowd. We didn't have the outcome that we set out or expected to have but that is a good team out there," said head coach Terrence Johnson. "It was good for our guys to have that experience. I told them leading up to the game that it would be about the response, and I thought we did that tonight and responded in a positive away. Mid-America is a good team and really well coached, but our guys stepped up and fought where we were in control of the game throughout."
 
Eight straight points were scored by the Bobcats with six coming from Brandon Davis as they never looked backed. Davis would go on to net the 11 of the first 13 points for TXST. Twice the Bobcats took a 25-point lead in the opening 20 minutes with the last being a putback dunk by Brandon Love with 39 seconds showing on the clock.
 
The Evangels did not back down coming out of the break and eventually used a 10-0 run to cut Texas State's advantage to 51-40 with 11:09 to go in the game. A technical foul called on one of the visiting players turned the momentum back to the Bobcats as they netted 11 consecutive points with nine of the points coming from the charity stripe to increase the lead to 20.
 
For the game, TXST made 22-of-27 (81.5%) free throw attempts and netted 31 points off of turnovers. Davis led the Bobcats with 15 as he made 4-of-7 from the field and converted all six of his attempts at the charity stripe. Both Dylan Dawson and Mason Harrell finished with 13 points apiece.
 
Davison Sykes contributed 12 points with a 4-for-6 game from the field and the free throw line. He is the first Bobcat freshman to begin his collegiate career with back-to-back double-digit point contests since Nijal Pearson in 2016-17.
 
Next up for TXST is a trip to the Northwest to take on Rhode Island. The game will tip at 3 p.m. CT on Saturday and be streamed on ESPN+.
 
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