HOUSTON – The Texas State men's basketball team (6-6) concluded its final road non-conference game of the season with a 72-37 setback to 3rd-ranked Houston (12-0) Thursday night in the Fertitta Center.
 
"We appreciate the opportunity. It is not that often that you get a chance to compete against a top five team in the country. Coach [Kelvin] Sampson and his staff are like family to us, so we appreciate it," said head coach Terrence Johnson. "This is the level in which we inspire to play at. We're inspired to be able to compete and win games at this level. We had a chance to do so tonight against an amazing team and I hope that we learned a lot from tonight and can take it heading into conference play."
 
Kaden Gumbs led the Bobcats offensively with seven points while both he and Dylan Dawson dished out a team-high two assists. Adding six points, all in the second half, was Jordan Mason.
 
Both Dontae Horne and Brandon Love scored five points apiece and Christian Turner finished the night with eight rebounds.
 
Overall, TXST committed 27 turnovers which led to 27 points for the Cougars. On the plus side, the Bobcats had a 39-37 edge on the glass against a team that was 23rd in the nation in rebounding margin at +9.5.
 
The first 10 points of the game were scored by the Cougars with Gumbs ending the scoring drought with a driving layup at the 14:06 mark. Horne knocked down a three-pointer from the left corner to cut the deficit to seven. Another trey at the 6:19 mark, this time by Dawson, pulled the Bobcats to within four.
 
However, UH scored eight straight points with the first six coming in less than a minute to lead by a dozen. The Bobcats would go on to score four of the last seven points of the opening half to cut the Cougars' advantage to 29-18.
 
UH pulled away in the opening minutes of the second half as it netted 20 of the first 24 points scored by either team.
 
Next up for TXST is the Sun Belt Conference opener on Dec. 30 at James Madison for a 1 p.m. tip.
 
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