SAN MARCOS, Texas — One final regular season game and Texas State women's basketball has a shot at its first conference title in 15 years.
 
Texas State, which beat Louisiana 58-51 on Wednesday, is sitting one game back of JMU for first place in the Sun Belt standings going into Friday's regular season finale at Arkansas State (7 pm, ESPN+).
 
The Bobcats will need a win and a Dukes loss – they host Marshall on Friday at 4 pm CT – to claim a share of the regular season conference championship. The last time the Bobcats won a regular season conference title was in 2007-08 in the Southland Conference.
 
And while Texas State is chasing a conference championship, it is also fighting for a top-four seed in the Sun Belt Conference Championship tournament next week in Pensacola, Fla. The top-four seeds in the postseason tournament earn a double-bye and do not play their first game until Friday, March 3. The opening round games take place on Tuesday, February 28 while the championship game is on Monday, March 6.
 
The Bobcats are currently tied with Southern Miss, Old Dominion and Troy for second place in the Sun Belt standings. The trio is one game up on Georgia Southern (11-6 Sun Belt) and none of those five teams play each other on the final day in the regular season.
 
That means it is possible that four teams come out of Friday tied for second – and one of those four second-place teams misses out on a double-bye.
 
It is also possible, with a JMU loss and wins by Texas State, Southern Miss, Old Dominion and Troy, that five teams share a claim to the Sun Belt regular season title. In other words, a "regular season champion" could miss out on a double-bye in the tournament. In this scenario, and based on the Sun Belt tiebreaker, Old Dominion would lose out on a top-four seed and Texas State would be the No. 2 seed.
 
In the Sun Belt, the tie breaking formula for situations of three or more teams tied is first considered by the highest win-loss percentage against each other. Therefore, entering Friday, Texas State leads in the tiebreaker with the three other teams in second place, thanks to two wins over Southern Miss and one against Old Dominion:
 
Win-Loss Percentage against Each Other – Texas State, Southern Miss, Old Dominion, Troy
Entering Friday, Feb. 24
1. Texas State: 3-2 (.600)
2. Old Dominion: 1-1 (.500)
3. Troy: 2-2 (.500)
4. Southern Miss: 2-3 (.400)
 
If Texas State wins and Troy loses on Friday, it secures a No. 2 seed in the Sun Belt tournament (it loses the tiebreaker to JMU for the No. 1 seed if there is a tie between the two for the top spot).
 
If it loses, Texas State needs a loss by any one of Southern Miss, ODU or Troy to secure a top-four seed. If all three of those teams win and Texas State loses, it would be the No. 5 seed in the Sun Belt tournament and play its first game on Wednesday, March 1 at 2 pm.
 
The other scenarios in which Texas State would miss out on a top-four seed is if it, Troy and Georgia Southern lose while Southern Miss and ODU win OR Texas State and Troy lose while Southern Miss, ODU and Georgia Southern all win. Texas State lost both games to Troy this year, which hurts it in a head-to-head with the Trojans or a pool tiebreaker when Southern Miss and ODU are not involved due to possible Friday wins.
 
In short, if Texas State wins, it is no less than a No. 3 seed – and high as a No. 2 seed and/or conference champion.
 
 
SWEATER WEATHER

• Da'Nasia Hood had 27 points on Wednesday at Louisiana, which was her second-highest total in a game this season.
• It was Hood's most points in a game since Nov. 19 at UTEP earlier this season (30).
• Hood enters Friday with back-to-back 20-point games and averaging 24.0 points on 53.1 percent shooting along with 9.0 rebounds in the last 2 games.
• Hood has 10 straight games of double-digit scoring entering the regular season finale.
• In the last 9 games, Hood has 17+ points in each contest. Over the stretch, she is averaging 18.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 1.4 steals. She is also shooting 42.8 percent (62-of-145) in that span.

 
HOOD ON THE ROAD

• In her 8 road games this year, Hood is averaging 19.4 points and 8.9 rebounds.
• Hood has played in 8 of the 11 Texas State road games this year.
• In conference road games, Hood is averaging 18.8 points and 8.7 rebounds.
• In all games, Hood is averaging 16.9 points and 7.7 rebounds.

 
HOOD ON THE BOARDS

• Da'Nasia Hood, who is already 5th in Texas State history in career scoring, is looking to become just the third Bobcat to have 1,700 career points and 800 career rebounds.
• Hood enters Friday with 798 career rebounds.
• With 2 more rebounds, Hood would join Linda Muelker (1981-85) and Tori Talbert (2001-05) as the three Bobcats in the 1,700-800 club.
• Hood is 6th in program history in career rebounds. She needs 38 more rebounds to tie Ericka May (2014-18) for 5th on the all-time list.

 
WITH THE ASSIST

• Kennedy Taylor has 168 assists in 28 games this season and is averaging 6.0 assists/game.
• Her 6.0 assists/game are 15th in the country while her 168 assists are 11th-most in the nation.
• The 168 assists are also 4th-most in a single-season by a Bobcat in program history.
• Taylor needs 3 assists to have the 3rd-most assists in a season by a Bobcat.
• Taylor owns 3 of the top-4 assist totals in a season by a Bobcat.
• Last year, she had a career-high 183 assists, which are 2nd-most in school history. In 2019-20, she had 170, which are 3rd-most.

 
Most Assists, Single Season
Texas State History
1.   Taeler Deer (2017-18)                       213
2.   Kennedy Taylor (2021-22)                 183
3.   Kennedy Taylor (2019-20)                 170
4.   Kennedy Taylor (2022-23)                 168
5.   Shelly Borton (1989-90)                    161
 
KENNEDY'S SCORING

• Kennedy Taylor has 1,304 career points entering Friday – and is nearing another spot on Texas State's all-time scoring list.
• She needs 6 points to tie Ashely Ezeh (2010-14) for 12th on Texas State's all-time career scoring list.
• Taylor is already the only Bobcat to have 1,300 career points and 500 career assists.

 
EATON ON THE BLOCK

• Tianna Eaton leads the Bobcats with a career-high 38 blocks this year.
• The 38 blocks are currently 5th-most in a season by a Bobcat.
• Eaton needs one more block to tie Denise Jones (1994-95) for the 4th-most blocks ever in a season by a Bobcat.
• She has at least one block in 25 of the 28 games this season.
• Eaton entered the season with 17 career blocks in two years at Texas State.

 
ROAD DOGS

• While Texas State is 7-4 on the road this season, it is 6-2 in conference road games.
• Texas State has won 4 straight road games entering Friday.
• The Bobcats have clinched their first winning record on the road since 2017-18 (10-6).
• Texas State is holding its Sun Belt opponents to 57.5 points in road games this year (60.0 points in conference home games).

 
ARKANSAS STATE SERIES

• The all-time series between Texas State and Arkansas State is tied, 9-9.
• The Bobcats have won 3 in a row against the Red Wolves, including this season's first matchup on Jan. 14 in San Marcos (W, 89-55).
• The Bobcats have won 4 of the last 6 meetings and 9 of the last 12.
• Texas State has scored 75+ points in each of the last 3 meetings and 84+ in the last 2.
• The last 4 meetings have all been decided by 9+ points.
• The Bobcats have lost their last 2 on the road against Arkansas State.
• Texas State's last win in Jonesboro was on Feb. 15, 2020 (W, 83-69). Da'Nasia Hood had 21 points in that game.