PENSACOLA, Fla. – Texas State's time in Florida continues for at least a few more days following a 75-59 win over Southern Miss Thursday in the Pensacola Bay Center. Leading the way was Dontate Horne with a career-high 20 points.
The junior guard scored 18 of his points in the second half. For the game, he made 5-of-9 shots and went 10-for-12 at the free throw line. Horne also set a career-high with three steals and matched his career best of seven rebounds that he set in the season opener at Little Rock.
Jordan Mason added 18 points on 6-of-13 shooting and went 6-for-8 at the charity stripe. The sophomore added five rebounds, four assists and one steal.
Also reaching double-figures was Dylan Dawson with 12 points behind an efficient 4-of-5 day from the field with two made three-pointers. Both Davion Sykes and Christian Turner scored seven points apiece and grabbed seven and six boards, respectively.
Having experience from playing in the arena on Tuesday, the Bobcats jumped out to an 8-3 advantage with the first five points coming from Dawson.
The Golden Eagles scored six straight points to take a two-point advantage at 12-10. The teams would trade buckets the TXST defense really clamped down and held USM to three baskets over the final 11:52 of the first half. The Bobcats outscored the Eagles 20-7 in that time to take a 34-23 lead into halftime.
Coming out for the second half, the Bobcats were on fire offensively. They scored the first nine points with Dawson's three-pointer capping the run just 2:15 into the period and forcing a USM timeout as TXST took a 20-point advantage.
The Bobcats held a double-digit advantage for the rest of the game. The closest the Eagles got was 10 after Asutin Crowley made a trey and Victor Hart converted the first of two free throw attempts with three minutes left on the clock.
A fastbreak dunk by Brandon Love off the missed Hart free throw put Texas State back up by a dozen. Andre Curbelo converted a layup a minute later to make it 67-57. The Bobcats would close out the game at the charity stripe going 5-for-6 while the Eagles could only get one shot to fall the rest of the contest.
Next up for TXST is a meeting with No. 3 seed Troy on Saturday. Tipoff for the quarterfinal game is scheduled for 5 p.m.
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