SAN MARCOS, TX — Playing in her 100th career collegiate women's basketball game Sunday afternoon,
Tianna Eaton played like a seasoned veteran as the sixth-year senior was one of several focal points in Texas State's 58-50 win over Morgan State.
Eaton, who joined
Kennedy Taylor (119), Talour Pruitt (113),
Da'Nasia Hood (111) and
Ja'Kayla Bowie (107) as the only active Texas State women's basketball student-athletes to have appeared in 100-or-more career collegiate women's basketball games, all but sealed the Bobcats' sixth win on the season during a one-minute stretch late in the fourth quarter.
With Morgan State cutting the Texas State advantage to two at 52-50 with 1:29 remaining in the contest, Eaton collected an offensive rebound on her own missed jumper and was subsequently fouled by Taylor Addison. Eaton went on to sink both free throw attempts to push the Bobcat lead back to four.
Seconds later, Eaton pulled down a defensive rebound off a missed 3-point attempt form Ja'Niah Henson. Again, the California native was fouled and sent to the free throw line, where she, again, connected on both shots from the free throw line.
The personal 4-0 scoring run by Eaton forced Morgan State to play out of a system during its next offensive possession, when the Bears turned the ball over which led to
Kennedy Taylor being fouled and going on to sink two more free throws with 17 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
FROM HEAD COACH ZENARAE ANTOINE
"I had a lot of confidence in that our team would be able to win this basketball game, not having
Da'Nasia Hood. I think a lot of people always ask, 'What are you going to do without Da'Nasia?', but we had an opportunity to play without her on the road and won, so there was a sense of calmness as a coach. But I was stressed about this game even before Da'Nasia was unable to play, because (Morgan State) is an excellent defensive team so to be able to face a team this good defensively this early in the season, is exciting. They did a great job in the first half of forcing us into believing we had things there offensively that weren't actually there."
FROM GUARD TIANNA EATON
"(On the offensive end) I'm just trusting that we can make those clean passes into the paint and trusting our teammates will finish at the rim. And I think they did a good job of that today. If you look at (
Lauryn Thompson), she did a really good job of finishing. Feeding the post is something that we practiced a lot throughout the week, so being able to see that pay off was exciting."
STAT LEADERS
SCORES BY QUARTERS
- 1st | Texas State 15, Morgan State 14
- 2nd | Morgan State 28, Texas State 24
- 3rd | Texas State 42, Morgan State 37
- 4th | Texas State 58, Morgan State 50
MATCH NOTES
- In her fifth start on the season, redshirt-senior Lauryn Thompson was credited with her first double-double on the 2022-23 campaign as she finished Sunday's action with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
- The 12 points mark the first time this season Thompson has turned in back-to-back double-digit scoring outputs after having 12 points against Loyola Marymount on Saturday, Dec. 3.
- Overall, Sunday afternoon marked the third double figure scoring performance for Thompson this season after she opened the season with a 22-point outing against Howard Payne on Nov. 7.
- Sunday's win marked the first-ever victory for Texas State over Morgan State after the two programs played for the first time during the 2019-20 season.
- The eight-point outcome also came in the Bears' first trip to Texas in the series history.
- Texas State's win over Morgan State gave 12-year head coach Zenarae Antoine her 170th career win, making her just the second head coach (Suzanne Fox) in program history to reach the milestone.
- Antoine needs only five more wins to pass Fox and become the program's all-time winning head coach.
- With the win, Texas State is now 5-0 in games played inside Strahan Arena for the first time since the 2019-20 season, when the Bobcats won their first six home games of the season.
UP NEXT
- Following the win over Morgan State (7-3), Texas State (6-2) will now look for its fourth win in a row when the Bobcats play host to Texas A&M – Corpus Christi (3-5) at 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 16
- The Islanders, coming off a 65-58 win over UTRGV on Saturday, Dec. 3, will play St. Thomas (TX) at 7 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 12 before traveling to San Marcos to cap the week.
FOLLOW US
- For the latest information on the team, follow @TXStateWBB on Twitter and Instagram. General athletic news can also be at @TxStateBobcats on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
