SAN MARCOS, TX — Wearing "FIGHT" long-sleeve shirts throughout Thursday night's game to raise awareness for breast cancer, the Texas State women's basketball program showed all 1,019 in attendance its fight and determination to knock off Louisiana, 72-71, in overtime.
Texas State (12-11, 7-4) threw the first haymaker — figuratively — during the first quarter, when the Bobcats shot 53.3 percent from the field and held an eight-point lead by quarter's end.
However, Louisiana (13-6, 5-4) responded by taking the next two rounds and nearly delivered a knockout blow in the fourth quarter.
But the Bobcats, with their backs against the ropes, started retaliating with body blows and chipped away at a 10-point deficit with 4:07 remaining in regulation. A quick one-two combination from
Da'Nasia Hood and
Kennedy Taylor made it a five-point game. Back-to-back blows from
Jaeda Reed and
Ja'Kayla Bowie cut the Texas State deficit to one with 55 seconds left.
Hood nearly delivered the match-ending blow with an and-one with 28 seconds left to cap a 12-0 run. Lanay Wheaton, however, converted a pair of three throw opportunities with 13 seconds left to send the main event into extra rounds.
Both teammates exchanged jabs less than two minutes into the extra five-minute period, before Wheaton, again, put fans on the edge of their seats as a jumper with 65 seconds left put Louisiana back ahead.
Twenty-seven seconds later,
Sierra Dickson split a pair of free throws. Texas State, then, ducked and dodged two would-be knockout punches from Louisiana as
Lauryn Thompson gathered the defensive rebounds with nine seconds left.
With both teams exhausted from the nearly 45-minute match, Thompson ended the night when she gathered a loose basketball off a Hood 3-point attempt and laid it up at the buzzer.
FROM HEAD COACH ZENARAE ANTOINE
"Wow. What an overtime game. It was a lot of fun out there. But there were sometimes that is wasn't fun — specifically that third quarter — but what was fun was watching the team just chip away and their maturity towards the end. They understood that we didn't need to take a lot of quick shots to get back into the game. They understood we had to stay the course and good things will happen."
STAT LEADERS
SCORES BY QUARTER
- 1st | Texas State 16, Louisiana 8
- 2nd | Texas State 26, Louisiana 25
- 3rd | Louisiana 52, Texas State 47
- 4th | Texas State 67, Louisiana 67
- OT | Texas State 72, Louisiana 71
GAME NOTES
- With Thursday night's win, Texas State has now won its fourth straight Sun Belt Conference game, marking the first four-game conference winning streak for the Bobcats since Feb. 14 to Feb. 23, 2019.
- By scoring 27 points against the Ragin' Cajuns, Texas State senior Da'Nasia Hood surpassed the 20-point total for the 10th time this season. Of those 10 20-point outings for Hood, eight have come against conference opponents.
- With the win, Texas State head coach Zenarae Antoine is now 8-2 all-time in "Bobcats Fight Breast Cancer game. The Bobcats have now won their last five consecutive games when raising awareness to breast cancer. Texas State moves to 2-1 all-time against Louisiana is such games.
UP NEXT
- Texas State will look for its fifth straight conference victory when the Bobcats host ULM on Saturday, Feb. 12 at 2 p.m. CT.
- For the latest information on the team, follow @TXStateWBB on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. General athletic news can also be at @TxStateBobcats on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
