MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – The Texas State men's basketball team fell 85-70 Saturday evening to Central Michigan in the McGuirk Arena. The contest was the second of the two games of the MAC-SBC Challenge.
 
With the result, the Bobcats are now 12-13 overall while the Chippewas improved to 11-13 on the season.
 
Tylan Pope led TXST offensively with 13 points, 11 of which came in the second half. He was 6-of-7 from the field and made 1-of-2 free throw attempts. Kaden Gumbs ended the contest with 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting and dished out six assists.
 
Also with a double-digit scoring game was Coleton Benson with 11 points off the bench. The junior guard made three shots from long-distance including two in the final 94 seconds of the contest.
 
Christian Turner grabbed a team-high six rebounds and scored seven points while Johsua O'Garro finished with nine points, five rebounds, two steals and one block.
 
CMU opened the game with seven straight points over the first 2:14. Following a timeout, TXST was able to cut the deficit to 9-11 with 13:29 left in the first half following a layup by Drue Drinnon.
 
Back-to-back three-pointers from Drinnon and O'Garro, respectively, pulled the Bobcats to within 27-25 with 1:27 remaining in the opening stanza. However, the Chippewas closed the period on a 6-1 run to take a seven-point advantage into the break.
 
Pope converted a layup just over three minutes into the second half to cap off a 12-4 run for Texas State to start the second half. That basket gave the Bobcats their first lead of the game at 38-37. A dunk by Pope and layup through traffic from Gumbs extend the advantage to four points five minutes into the period.
 
After CMU tied the game up, Nate Deer dunked the ball and was fouled. He converted an old-fashion three-point play to put TXST in front again, this time at 47-45.
 
The Chippewas went on a run that saw them go up by nine after two free throws form Anthony Pritchard. A trey courtesy of Dylan Dawson and a Pope free throw cut the deficit to 63-58. However, the hosts scored 15 of the next 17 points to put the game away.
 
Next up for the Bobcats is the final two road games of Sun Belt Conference play. First up will be a game on Thursday at ULM with tip set for 6:30 p.m.
 
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