TXST WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Texas State was unable to overcome a slow start, falling to the archrival UTSA Roadrunners 7054.
The Bobcats and Head Coach Zenarae Antoine fall to 6-4 overall.
“At the end of the day it was gonna be the team that’s gonna be more disciplined generally [wins] when you’re fighting like that,” Antoine said. “It took us a long time to get our discipline in this game. and I think that’s the tough part about it, because UTSA is really good. and I told Karen before the game, this is the best team she’s had since she’s been there.”
After being tied at 6-6 in the first quarter, UTSA closed out the first quarter on a 6-2 run to enter the second quarter up 12-8.
The Roadrunners then outscored the Bobcats 2712 in the second quarter to take a commanding 39-20 lead, which Texas State was unable to overcome.
“It took us a while to find our discipline with that piece of it,” Antoine said. “[That] led to a lot of transition opportunities where we did not do a good job in transition. By the time we found our legs and started to do it right, we ran out of time. With all that being said, we did some things that we do well, which is we got downhill and to the free throw line.”
Senior forward Nicole Leff noted the conversation at halftime was improving the Bobcats’ defense on UTSA’s fast break attempts.
“One of the main things we talked about was that the fast break transition defense wasn’t good,” Leff said “It’s hard to get in a flow offense if we’re not getting good stops. So I think that helped us in the second half, but in the first half we weren’t communicating how we needed to get those stops.”
Another key element the Bobcats needed to improve on was finishing at the basketball as Senior forward Sierra Dickson explained.
“[We] talked about getting high percentage shots and not looking for them to give us calls,” Dickson said. “We had to finish. We didn’t really finish well the whole game but we did get to the free throw line, so we just had to finish [there].”
But despite the Bobcats getting to the free throw line, converting those attempts into points proved to be challenging as well, shooting just 13-27.
“We did not produce at the free throw line,” Antoine said. “We just came off of a game where we were 80 plus at the free throw line, and we shot over 20 free throws. But tonight, we got to the free throw line, and we left a lot of free throws out there. We left 14 points out there, and that makes a difference.”
Texas State will look to bounce back this Sunday when the Bobcats open conference play against the Marshall Thundering Herd.
cmcwilliams @sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc
