PENSACOLA, Fla. – Friday night in the Pensacola Bay Center, DJ Hall broke Texas State's freshman scoring record with a 25-point effort. Unfortunately, it would be Southern Miss (18-15) coming away with an 81-77 victory over the Bobcats (19-13) in the fourth round of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
 
Hall was 10-of-18 from the field and made 5-of-6 free throws to pace TXST offensively. He also grabbed 11 rebounds to record his second straight double-double and eighth of the season. The Plano, Texas native finished the season with 500 points, the 23rd time a Bobcat has ever reached the mark.
 
Mark Drone was the only other player to reach double-figures with 19 points, 17 of which came in the second half. Kaden Gumbs added eight points and two assists.
 
Coming off the bench Makai Willis chipped in with six points and seven rebounds. Jalen Bolden also scored six points while Franck Emmou netted five points and finished with a team-high four assists and two steals.
 
It was a tight contest throughout the first half that saw seven lead changes and the scored tied seven times. The largest advantage was held by the Golden Eagles at the 9:32 mark at 21-16.
 
Hall put the Bobcats in front 33-32 with 1:12 left in the opening half with two free throws. USM closed the period with a layup and three-pointer from Curt Lewis to go into halftime leading by four.
 
USM stretched its advantage to eight points nearly three minutes into the second half. Eventually, Texas State cut the deficit to two with four straight points from Drone with 13 minutes to play.
 
The Golden Eagles went back up by eight after a 7-2 run at the halfway mark of the period. The Bobcats would then go on a 10-1 run that was capped off by a jumper from Hall to put them in front for the first time in the half at 60-59.
 
After two made USM free throws, Bolden converted a layup to give TXST its last lead of the game with 6:20 to play. The Eagles scored nine of the next 11 points to go back in front for good. The Bobcats were able to stay within a possession late in the game but were unable to get a defensive stop to make a final run.
 
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