Hood’s double-double pushes Bobcats past Loyola Marymount

With 26 and 10 rebounds from graduate senior forward Da’Nasia Hood, the Texas State Bobcats held off a furious comeback by the Loyola Marymount Lions for the 74-62 win.

Following Saturday’s victory, head basketball coach Zenarae Antoine said she told her team that if they want to compete for a conference championship, they cannot allow teams to claw their way back into games.

“We fought so hard coming out of halftime and stayed really disciplined defensively,” Antoine said. “We made the adjustments to stay in a good position but we just got laxed. That is something we have to change when we talk about championship culture. Once you put your foot pedal, you have to stay on it and not relent.”

Despite building up an 18 point lead in the fourth quarter, LMU was able to mount a comeback and cut the lead down to 65-60 with 1:40 left in the game.

The Bobcats, however, went on a 9-0 run while going nearly perfect from the free throw line at 19-20 as well as making key defensive plays.

“That is a great team if you look at their schedule,” Antoine said. “From a coaching perspective, it was really hard to get this team to understand who they played to and why they are 1-6. [LMU knew it was] capable of beating us and we felt it but at the end of the day, we had the poised during our timeouts and good responses to the timeouts along with the adjustments that we made. We made some critical defensive stops then hit some critical free throws so it helped create separation.”

“We never play frantically or out of sorts,” Antoine continued. “I really felt like we just played too laxed but the team did a really good job of regrouping in addition to timeouts which is what you do.”

During the critical timeouts, Hood talked about the ability to stay calm on defense and making sure the team were all on the same mindset.

“Just like coach said, it’s all about having tight huddles,” Hood said. “When teams like LMU have that defensive intensity, it’s all about staying poised, making sure we are all on the same page, and giving us the same reminders.”

Free throws turned out to be critical as Texas State shot 95% from the line, including Hood shooting 11-11.

“Those were huge,” Antoine said. “Obviously Da’Nasia is a player and helped close that out, so like the option that you have multiple players in the game that can shoot free throws do the stretch when you know the other team is going to foul a lot.”

But as nice as the 26 points were for Hood, it was the 10 defensive rebounds that helped Texas State put away LMU for good, which is an accomplishment she is proud of.

“That is something we talked about at halftime,” Hood said. “It’s what I try to bring to this team every game. Defensive rebounding is important so I’m trying to control the defensive boards and helping my team is important. I’m really happy to get that double-double because it gives me a little motivation to work hard and up my rebounds. If I’m getting more defensive rebounds, it helps the team finish our defensive plays.”

Texas State returns to play Sunday at 3 p.m. against Morgan State inside Strahan Arena.