PENSACOLA, Fla. — After never relinquishing the lead in the quarterfinal matchup against App State, Texas State has now set its sights on Southern Miss in the Sun Belt Basketball Championship semifinals.
The Sunday afternoon contest, between the tournament's No. 2 seed (Texas State) and No. 3 seed (Southern Miss), will pit two teams against one another who have already faced off twice this season.
The Bobcats won both matchups, which were each decided by 10+ points. However, the first Texas State win against the Lady Eagles was in overtime in San Marcos and after the Bobcats surrendered a six-point lead in the final two minutes.
Nevertheless, Texas State made a statement in the second matchup against Southern Miss on the road later in the season, taking them down by 17 points thanks to a 25-9 fourth quarter in favor of Texas State. The Bobcats rallied from a halftime deficit in the road victory.
The win was crucial to Texas State – and Southern Miss – in sharing a claim of the Sun Belt regular season championship. The Bobcats needed all 13 of their conference wins, including seven of those being on the road.
Texas State is looking to punch its first ticket to the Sun Belt tournament championship game since 2018.
Sunday's 2 pm game can be seen on
ESPN+.
WINNING WAYS
- Texas State is riding a four-game winning streak into Sunday's semifinals game, its longest winning streak of the season.
- Southern Miss is carrying a six-game winning streak into the tilt, which is also its longest winning streak of the season.
- Over the Bobcats' four-game winning streak, they are averaging 69.3 points on 45.9 percent shooting (96-of-209) and 37.3 percent from three (28-of-75).
- Defensively, Texas State has held its opponents to 58.5 points over the last four games on 39.2 percent shooting (85-of-217).
- The Bobcats have also won six games in a row on the road or at a neutral site.
TALKING TURNOVERS
- Texas State forced App State to turn the ball over 24 times on Friday and held the Mountaineers to their fewest points against a Sun Belt team this year.
- The Bobcats have forced their opponents to 20+ turnovers nine times this season – and twice in the last two games.
- Texas State has forced 20+ turnovers in four games this season against Sun Belt teams.
- In the first game against Southern Miss this season, the Bobcats forced the Lady Eagles to turn the ball over 28 times. In the second game, Southern Miss cut that total in half to 14.
ON FIRE
- Da'Nasia Hood continued her impressive stretch on Friday against App State as she scored a game-high 20.
- In the last 11 games, Hood is averaging 18.9 points on 43.1 percent shooting (75-of-174) and 33.8 percent from three (23-of-68).
- She is also averaging 8.0 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.5 steals over the same stretch.
- In the last 4 games, she is averaging 21.5 points on 49.2 percent shooting (30-of-61) and 38.5 percent from three (10-of-26).
WITH THE ASSIST
- Kennedy Taylor has 185 assists in 30 games this season and is averaging 6.2 assists/game.
- Her 6.2 assists/game are 12th in the country while her 185 assists are 10th-most in the nation.
- The 185 assists are also the 2nd-most in a single-season by a Bobcat in program history.
- 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 4th-most.
Most Assists, Single Season
Texas State History
1. Taeler Deer (2017-18) 213
2. Kennedy Taylor (2022-23) 185
3.
Kennedy Taylor (2021-22) 183
4.
Kennedy Taylor (2019-20) 170
5. Shelly Borton (1989-90) 161
TEXAS STATE vs. SOUTHERN MISS
- Having already taken down Southern Miss twice this season, Texas State is looking to beat a team three times in the same season for the first time since 2020-21 – and first time in a non-pandemic affected season since 2014-15.
- In 2020-21, Texas State beat ULM four times.
- In 2014-15, the Bobcats beat UTA twice in the regular season before also beating them in the conference tournament.
