SAN MARCOS, TX — On the heels of the best non-conference slate under head coach Zenerae Antoine, the Texas State women's basketball program looks to continue its winning ways when the Bobcats begin Sun Belt Conference play at Georgia Southern at 4 p.m. CT / 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, Dec. 29.
Texas State, which finished with eight non-conference wins over the last two months, will be aiming for its ninth win in 10 conference-opening games since joining the Sun Belt prior to the 2013-14 season.
Daniel Waugh (play by play), Thallan Walker (analyst) and LeeAnna Gaye (sideline) will have Thursday afternoon's game on ESPN+.
BY AIR OR BY LAND
- Texas State will travel to Statesboro, Ga., with a 9-3 all-time record against Georgia Southern dating back to the first-ever meeting between the two women's basketball programs on Jan. 3, 2015.
- Thursday's basketball game on Thursday, Dec. 29 will mark the earliest the two women's basketball programs have ever met in a season. The previous earliest game occurred on Dec. 30, 2015, when the Bobcats won 61-56.
- Texas State has won the last three consecutive meetings against Georgia Southern and will be looking for the first four-game winning streak by either team in the series history.
- When the two programs linked up last season, when the Bobcats won 78-74 in Statesboro, senior forward Da'Nasia Hood scored 32 points on 13-of-16 shooting in 33 minutes of game action. She knocked down three of her four 3-point attempts, pulled down five rebounds, was credited with four steals and dished out two assists.
- Texas State has not lost to Georgia Southern in Statesboro, Ga., since Feb. 18, 2017, when the Eagles won 71-69. No active Bobcat women's basketball student-athlete has lost to Georgia Southern during their Texas State playing careers.
- Texas State last opened Sun Belt Conference play in Statesboro, Ga., in the 2018-19 season, when the Bobcats knocked off the Eagles, 64-52, on Jan. 3, 2019. The two women's basketball programs also opened conference play in the 2015-16, when the Bobcats won 61-56 in San Marcos.
1K EVERYTHING
- Taelour Pruitt, a first-year Bobcat following a four-year career at SEMO, will enter Thursday afternoon's contest at Georgia Southern needing just 19 more points to join Kennedy Taylor and Da'Nasia Hood as the only active Texas State women's basketball student-athletes with 1,000-or-more collegiate basketball points. She concluded her Redhawk career with 899 career points and has scored 82 points in 11 games as a Bobcat.
STARTING OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT
- Texas State women's basketball head coach Zenarae Antoine will begin her latest conference slate looking to win her third consecutive conference-opening game. Antoine, since the Bobcats joined the Sun Belt Conference prior to the 2013-14 season, is 8-1 in conference-opening games. The lone loss occurred on Jan. 2, 2020, when Little Rock beat Texas State, 78-66.
LEADING THE WAY
- Texas State's fifth-year senior guard Kennedy Taylor will enter Thursday afternoon's basketball game at Georgia Southern having been credited with five-or-more assists in eight of the Bobcats' 11 games played so far this season.
BRICK BY BRICK
- Following a two-block performance last time out, Texas State's sixth-year senior Tianna Eaton has now been credited with 15 blocks on the season, the most by a Bobcat women's basketball student-athlete in a single season since Ti'Aira Pitts was credited with 37 during the 2017-18 campaign. Pitts currently serves as a graduate assistant on the Bobcats' coaching staff.
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.
