MOBILE, Ala. – The winning streak extended to seven games for Texas State (18-11, 10-6 Sun Belt) with a 90-82 victory in overtime over South Alabama (19-9, 9-6 Sun Belt) Thursday night in the Mitchell Center. With the win, the Bobcats are now half a game back of first place in the Sun Belt Conference standings.

"Wow, what a game! I'm proud of our guys as they showed a high level of resiliency and connectivity. Coach Riley is a great coach and he had his guys ready to play. I thought our guys found a way to make the right play at the right time," said head coach Terrence Johnson.
 
"The key to the game was our ability to rebound the ball and limit turnovers versus their zone. We were able to make some shots from the three-point line, which really helped us as well. It was a complete and total team effort."
 
Freshmen big men Robert Fields and DJ Hall had big nights. Fields came off the bench and recorded a new career-high with 15 points on 4-of-4 shooting and making 7-of-10 attempts at the free throw line. Hall netted 24 points, his third consecutive 20-point performance, going 8-for-16 from the field and 8-of-10 at the charity stripe. Both also grabbed eight rebounds apiece.
 
Over the last 12:35 minutes of regulation and the overtime period, Franck Emmou scored a season-high 17 points behind a 5-for-8 performance on three-pointers.
 
Mark Drone flirted with a triple-double as he scored 11 points, 10 coming in the first half, a career-high tying eight assists and seven rebounds. Chipping in eight and seven points were Jalen Bolden and Kaden Gumbs, respectively.
 
While the Jaguars finished with a better shooting night from the field (54.5%-48.3%), TXST made more three-pointers (10-9) and converted 24 free throws to just 13 for South Alabama. Texas State also held a 37-26 advantage on the boards that saw the Bobcats limit the hosts to two offensive boards compared to their 11.
 
The Jaguars opened the game with a 7-2 run in the first two minutes with the Bobcats' points coming from Hall on a jumper in the pain. Two layups from Drone were sandwiched between Gumbs knocking down a three-pointer to give TXST the lead.
 
After a trey tied the game, Texas State went on a 13-2 run over a nearly five-minute span to stretch the advantage to 25-14. Makai Willis and Fields combined for 10 of the points during the stretch with the other three coming on a shot from beyond the arc by Bolden.
 
Twice the Bobcats took a 12-point lead with the latest being at 38-26 after Hall made two free throws. South Alabama would end the half on a 7-2 run over the final 1:47 as TXST took a 40-33 lead into the break.
 
After the Jaguars made a layup on the opening possession of the second half, Gumbs knocked down a jumper and Hall finished with a dunk after a steal to put the Bobcats ahead 44-35. Over the next 5:37, South Alabama scored 15 consecutive points to go up by six.
 
Coming out of a called timeout, Emmou made back-to-back three-pointers to tie the game at 50-50. The redshirt sophomore would make his third trey to start a quick 8-0 run over a 1:12 minute span to give the Bobcats a 64-58 advantage.
 
The Jaguars would tie the game at 65-56 with 4:20 left in regulation. That is when Hall scored four straight points followed by Fields netting four consecutive points for TXST to again give the team a six-point advantage.
 
An 8-2 run over the final 1:47 would see South Alabama tie the game at 75-75 following a deep three-pointer from Jayden Cooper with nine seconds remaining. The Bobcats turned the ball over and a desperation heave from midcourt by Adam Olsen clanked off the front rim to send the game to overtime.
 
Bolden made a putback layup and Emmou knocked down his fourth shot from beyond the arc to open the scoring in the extra period. Emmou's final three-pointer of the game with 1:20 was the dagger as Texas State never trailed throughout overtime.
 
Next up for the Bobcats is their final road game of the season when they travel to take on Louisiana on Saturday with tipoff set for 12 p.m.
 
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