CONWAY, S.C. – Coming back from down 13 in the second half to take the lead, the Texas State men's basketball team (11-10, 4-5 Sun Belt) was seconds away from pulling out the victory but late free throws gave Coastal Carolina (12-9, 5-4 Sun Belt) a 72-70 win Thursday night in the HTC Center.
 
"We gave ourselves a chance in the second half after spotting them a half. We did not play our best basketball in the first half but we got going in the second after we found a rotation that worked for us and started chipping away at it," said head coach Terrence Johnson. "We fought, we competed and I'm proud of the effort the guys showed tonight. Unfortunately, the shot rolled out at end on our last true possession of the game that I felt like could have sealed the deal."
 
Mark Drone matched his season-high and tallied a team-high 24 points, 22 of which came in the second half. He made 9-of-21 shots and knocked down all six of his free throws while also grabbing five rebounds.
 
Tying his career-high was DJ Hall with 23 points that saw him make 6-of-13 from the field and connect on all 11 of his charity stripe attempts. The freshman grabbed a game best seven rebounds.
 
As a team, the Bobcats went 19-for-21 (90.5%) on free throws. They also tied the program record for fewest turnovers in a game with four. It is the fifth time that has occurred in team history with the most recent being against Georgia State on Feb. 22, 2020.
 
"I thought it was desperation mode and we couldn't give up possessions. I thought the points guards and the handlers really locked in as to what was at stake and knew they couldn't give up any possessions," Johnson said. "The other thing is that we played in space a little bit more, ran less sets and more two-game action. I'm proud of our guys of taking care of the ball tonight since that hasn't been something that we've been doing very well but did a great job of it tonight."
 
The Bobcats opened the game scoring 11 of the first 16 points. Capping off the scoring stretch was Robert Fields with an old-fashion three-point play. The team would then go cold from the field, making just one of their next 11 shots. That allowed the Chanticleers to go on a 19-2 run to go in front. Franck Emmou ended the host's run with a turnaround jumper in the paint at the 5:45 mark.
 
An 8-2 run by TXST saw Jaelyn Lee score the six straight points that included back-to-back second chance buckets to cut the deficit to three with just under three minutes left in the period. The teams would trade buckets for the rest of the half as CCU took a 32-27 advantage into the break.
 
Kyndall Davis made a floater from the right side of the paint that cut the deficit to 34-31 nearly 90 seconds into the second half. The Chanticleers started to pull away slowly and eventually stretched their advantage to 53-40 with 10:38 to go in the game.
 
Hall scored seven straight points until Drone hit a jumper to cap off a 9-0 run and pull TXST to within four just over three minutes later. Drone took over the Bobcats' offense by scoring 16 of the team's last 19 points. His last bucket came at the 1:28 mark and put Texas State in front 70-65.
 
CCU made it a one-point contest after Joshua Beadle hit a jumper and RaSheed Jones made two free throws. On the next possession, both Fields and Hall had chances at the rim but the ball rolled in and out each time.
 
With 1.1 seconds left, Hall was whistled for a foul challenging a three-pointer by Jones on the left wing. The Chanticleer knocked down all three attempts at the charity stripe and Drone's last second heave fell short.
 
Next up for the Bobcats is a trip to James Madison on Saturday. Tipoff for the game was moved up to 12 pm CT due to the forecasted inclement weather.
 
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