Zenarae Antoine went to erase whatever was written on the whiteboard inside the Moody Coliseum visitors’ locker room.
She was going to write “1992” — the last time Texas State defeated SMU before the Bobcats did it in Dallas on Thursday in a 74-70 overtime win. But the rest of the team stopped her before she could.
“Everyone started saying, ‘Congratulations, Coach!’” Antoine said. “I was like, ‘For what? Like, we won. Why are you telling me congratulations for this win?’”
Antoine looked at the whiteboard again. The Bobcats were recognizing her 139th victory with the maroon and gold, surpassing Linda Sharp’s (1989-97) total to become the third-winningest head coach in program history.
“I'll be honest with you, I had no idea,” Antoine said. “I'm very thankful for the student-athletes I've been able to coach at Texas State and really it's a nod to them. And it's a nod to the assistant coaches that I've had over the years as well. I'm honestly not into personal accolades. I'm more excited about opportunities for our athletes more than anything else.”
Texas State (1-1) was coming off the heels of a hard-fought loss in its season opener, falling 67-64 at New Orleans last Saturday. There was some in-game rust the team couldn’t shake off. The players had to wait longer than usual to return to the court because of the delays COVID-19 caused. And with six newcomers on the roster, the team’s on-court chemistry was still in its infant stages.
It resulted in some jumpiness by the Bobcats. The maroon and gold turned the ball over 22 times but only seven of them counted as steals for the Privateers. Two players — junior guard Kennedy Taylor and redshirt sophomore forward Lauryn Thompson — fouled out of the game.
Antoine rode her players hard in following practices, especially Da’Nasia Hood. The junior forward led the team with 16 points but didn’t play to the head coach’s liking on defense.
“You know, it was a tough first practice,” Antoine said. “That second practice, she got better. That third, before we played, even better than that. And obviously, we saw the output in the game, she was much better defensively for us. I think that also gave her confidence knowing that she wasn't giving up shots or that she was struggling. She was getting defensive rebounds for us.”
Texas State looked much more comfortable against the Mustangs (0-2). The Bobcats trailed 60-48 with 7:43 left in regulation, but cut the lead to 66-59 with 2:11 to go and closed out the quarter on a 7-0 run. Taylor drove past her defender and sank a left-handed layup with 11 seconds on the clock to tie the game up and send it into overtime.
The visitors held SMU to 2-9 shooting from the field in the final period and Hood went 4-6 at the free throw line to put away the 74-70 win.
“Not only did they buy into the scout, they really did a good job of understanding that they needed to play with poise. So that's a lesson learned,” Antoine said. “I think that's why you saw there wasn't a lot of nervousness … There wasn't a lot of strain in that game, it was very smooth and fluid. Even when we gave up a point to (Mustangs sophomore guard Kayla White) or a point to (freshman guard Rhyle McKinney), you saw it, they were like, ‘Hey, we're good. We gotta go ahead and get a bucket down on the other end and we need to get this next stop.’
Hood finished the game leading the team with 25 points and 9 rebounds. She was followed by Taylor, who scored 13 while adding four boards and four assists, junior guard Ja’Kayla Bowie with 13 points and three rebounds and senior guard Avionne Alexander with 11 points and six rebounds.
Texas State continues its five-game road stretch on Wednesday when it heads to San Antonio to take on Incarnate Word (1-2) at 7 p.m. Antoine said that while the victory at SMU — the program’s first against the Mustangs in Dallas since 1977 — was promising, she’s still expecting more out of the Bobcats, especially on defense. She thinks it’ll come the more the players share the court together.
“They have a lot of fun together,” Antoine said. “You know, we've got a lot of different personality types out there. We're still trying to find our stride from a chemistry standpoint because we have so many newcomers. But what I liked is there's certain things that seem to happen quickly for this group that are positive. And so, even if they fall, they get right back up and they go do it together. So that's definitely something that I recognize in this group that makes them a lot of fun to coach.”
