Texas State defeats Mountaineers in thriller

Texas State earned a 66-59 victory over Sun Belt conference foe Appalachian State on Thursday inside Strahan Arena.

The Bobcats were led by their graduate senior point guard Kennedy Taylor adding a double-double with 11 points and 13 assists, and senior forward Da’Naisa Hood added a second double-double with a game-high 19 points and 11 rebounds.

“First off, hats off to Appalachian State. They are a really good team,” head coach Zenarae Antoine said. “The matchup from the beginning was going to be difficult because of their ability to spread the floor out and then put the ball on the floor as well. Then, as we saw tonight they are excellent three point shooters as well.”

Those challenges of defending the perimeter was seen from the first quarter as the Mountaineers connected on six shots from behind the arc, but with a late bucket in the final minute of the period, the Bobcats held a slim 16-14 lead.

“This is the Sun Belt conference, this is our home-opener in the conference,” Antoine said. “For us this game met a lot, just putting our stamp on our floor at home since we’ve already traveled and two it is pretty open in this conference right now of who is going to be where. We play 18-games and everyone feels we can win this game.”

In the second quarter, as App State was hitting from deep, Texas State continued using the stellar passing from Taylor getting the ball into the post and on backdoor cuts to get easy looks at the rim as the Bobcats shot an impressive 55% in the second quarter taking a 32-27 lead into the break.

The start of the third quarter did give Texas State some issues as the Mountaineers came out on 8-3 scoring run to notch the game at 35 apiece forcing Antoine to call an early time out to rally the Bobcats.

“I had to call an early time out there coming out of the break, just to get us to regroup and really understand this team really meant business, and we’re not going to change,” Antoine said. “After the time out, we did a much better job with our response. We did an excellent job after they got their second wind and a kick in the butt.”

The Bobcats closed out the third on a 10-4 run to take a 49-44 lead into the final quarter. The two Bobcat seniors, Hood and Taylor, stepped up in the third quarter to sustain the lead propelling Texas State to the conference victory.

“Specifically, responding to this game finishing and playing through contact and continuing to stay on the boards focusing on boxing out,” Hood said. “That is one thing we are really emphasizing as a team is controlling the boards. It really helps us win games and staying locked in on defense.”

In the final quarter, Hood really stepped up grabbing seven of her 11-rebounds and scoring nine points in the last eight minutes. Taylor also had five assists in the fourth quarter. “ [App State] really pressed their toward the end to try and make a run,” Antoine said. “I think we had one not so great turnover out of the pressing action, but then we got it cleaned up and really took care of the ball.”

The Bobcats played with the lead for the majority of the game leading for 34:25 of the game and won the rebounding margin with 39 rebounds to the Mountaineers 35,  propelling the win. Senior guard Tianna Eaton also chipped in with 10 points for the Bobcats on the night.

Texas State continued its conference home stand with a Saturday afternoon tilt against Louisiana, which began after press time