JONESBORO, Ark. – Senior guard Joshua O'Garro recorded his second double-double of the season Saturday afternoon, but Arkansas State defeated Texas State 80-65 in the First National Bank Arena. O'Garro finished the game with 21 points and a career-high 13 rebounds.
 
"It was a typical slugfest in the Sun Belt. We struggled to play through their physicality. You have got to give them credit. They met us at the line of scrimmage and controlled the pace of the game," said head coach Terrence Johnson. "Arkansas State did a really good job of changing ends, and we got to do a better job in our transition defense, but we also had a lot of live ball turnovers to kind of fuel them on their home floor.
 
"I think we need to focus on simplifying the game plan a little bit, being more straight forward and direct getting downhill to create some opportunities like we did late in the game. We are looking forward to getting back to San Marcos to regroup and see what next week brings."
 
The Bobcats drop to 12-9 overall and 5-4 in the Sun Belt Conference while the Red Wolves are now 16-5 on the season and 7-2 in league play.
 
O'Garro was 9-fo-10 from the field and made both of his free throws while also seeing 10 of his 13 boards coming on the offensive glass. He added two blocks and two steals.
 
Tylan Pope contributed 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting with five rebounds. Also reaching double-figures off the bench was Coleton Benson with 15. The junior guard knocked down two three-pointers and was a perfect 7-for-7 at the charity stripe.
 
After Joseph Pinion opened the scoring with a three-pointer 2:12 into the contest, O'Garro converted back-to-back layups and Pope added another to put the Bobcats up 6-3. The hosts countered with 10 straight points to take their largest lead of the half at 15-8.
 
Six straight points would see TXST go up 27-22, its largest advantage of the contest, on two free throws by Benson. The Bobcats appeared to be on track to take a lead into halftime but ASU ended the period with six straight points that was  capped off by a trey from Pinion to send the hosts into halftime up 36-34.
 
The Red Wolves continued their scoring prowess to open the second half by netting 14 of the first 19 points of the period in the first four-plus minutes of action. The closest Texas State got the rest of the game was nine following back-to-back layups from Christian Turner and O'Garro that made it an eight-point contest with 14:08 remaining on the clock.
 
 Next for the Bobcats are two games at home beginning with Louisiana on Thursday at 7 p.m.
 
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