JONESBORO, Ark. – Trailing by as many as 12, Texas State made a late charge but fell short on the road to Arkansas State 85-82 Thursday night from the First National Bank Center.
 
"It was a hard-fought game. Whenever you play a Sun Belt game on the road you know it is going to be a war. I thought this one was a classic Sun Belt matchup," said head coach Terrence Johnson. "They [Arkansas State] do a really good job and got it going. We played hard and competed but the toughest thing for us was to sustain the energy and focus that it takes to win in a hostile environment."
 
"I'm proud of our effort. The guys are playing spirited basketball and learning how to play for each other and be a team. That doesn't always translate into the results when you want them, but I believe this growth period is something we can look back on at the end of the season as a turning point."
 
The loss drops the Bobcats to 6-10 overall and 0-4 in the Sun Belt Conference while the Red Wolves are now 7-9 and 3-1 in conference play.
 
Brandon Love, coming off a career-high game on Saturday, made his first nine shot attempts on his way to putting up 19 points with all coming in the first half. Dylan Dawson netted 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting with four made three-pointers and dished out two assists.
 
Coming off the bench, Coleton Benson scored 15 points as he went 4-for-5 from beyond the arc. Dontate Horne added nine points and Davion Sykes grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
 
It was an explosive first half as both teams shot over 54% and found each lead by as many as four. For the Bobcats, the frontcourt trio of Christian Turner (4), Love (10) and Sykes (2) combined to score the Bobcats first 16 points of the game.
 
TXST would enter halftime with a 39-38 lead but be held scoreless over the last 3:03 of the period.
 
The cold streak carried over to the second half as the Bobcats were outscored 17-4 over the first eight minutes of the half. Benson got the offense going as he knocked down a three-pointer at the 11:48 mark. He would hit another triple and was fouled for a four-point play to cut the deficit to five.
 
An old-fashion three-point play courtesy of Dontae Horne pulled Texas State to within 57-53 with 10:29 left in the game.
 
The teams traded baskets but the Red Wolves knocked down three attempts from beyond the arc to go back up by eight. Two free throws apiece from Dawson and Horne again got the deficit to four for the Bobcats.
 
Seven consecutive points for ASU again gave the hosts a double-digit advantage. TXST slowly chipped away beginning with Benson hitting his fourth trey of the night with 41 ticks on the clock.
 
After the Red Wolves went 1-for-2 at the line, Dawson hit a three from the left wing to make it a two-point contest. ASU's Caleb Fields made his two free throws but Dawson would knock down another triple, this time with a hand in his face, to make it an 83-82 contest with 16.2 left on the clock.
   
Fields made just 1-of-2 at the charity stripe the next time down the court. A Texas State turnover on the next possession would basically seal the contest for the Red Wolves. Izaiyah Nelson made just one of his two free throw attempts and a halfcourt heave by Jordan Mason at the buzzer clanked off the backboard.
 
Next up for the Bobcats is a trip to take on ULM on Saturday with tipoff scheduled for 2:30 p.m.
 
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