After falling to Georgia State on Thursday, Texas State head coach Zenarae Antoine noted that the team was still figuring out who could step up if the team’s two leading scorers, senior guard Toshua Leavitt or junior guard Brooke Holle, had an off shooting night.
Antoine inserted freshman forward Da’Nasia Hood and freshman guard Kennedy Taylor into the starting lineup on Saturday, giving the first-year players a chance to take on that role. The freshmen lit up Strahan Arena, combining for 40 points against Georgia Southern.
It wasn’t enough, though, as both Leavitt and Holle struggled to find their stroke and the Bobcats fell to the Eagles, 65-55.
“I hate it for these two young players, these freshmen who had good scoring games on paper,” Antoine said. “But at the end of the day, we didn’t get the win. And that really hurts. It hurts a lot for me for them.”
Hood and Taylor made their presence known as soon as they stepped onto the hardwood. On the first play of the game, Taylor found Hood in the paint for an and-1 layup. Taylor fed Hood again on the next possession, who cashed in for a post score. Taylor got on the board a minute later, draining a 3-pointer from the left wing to give the maroon and gold an 8-5 lead.
“I think the things that were working for us was when we actually executed our offense and not actually take rushed shots or try to make the home-run pass,” Taylor said. “But us actually going through our offense, keep running it and keep running it until the offense finds it.”
Still, Leavitt and Holle could never find a rhythm. The upperclassmen combined to shoot 0-8 from the floor in the first half, scoring zero points. The Bobcats also struggled on the boards, giving up 10 offensive rebounds during the first two quarters. By halftime, Texas State trailed, 30-26.
“(You tell Leavitt and Holle) ‘Keep shooting. Keep going hard.’ Keep picking them up, we’re right there with them,” Hood said. “Because if they have a shooting slump, we’re gonna be there for them. Just keep picking them up, tell them to keep shooting, stay in it and get it back on defense.”
Things didn’t improve much in the third quarter and Antoine switched her team from a 2-3 zone to a man-to-man defense in the fourth to make things easier rebounding-wise. It worked for a while.
Three treys from Hood helped keep Georgia Southern’s lead within single digits for most of the quarter. But Eagles junior guard Alexis Brown scored seven points in the last four minutes of the game to secure the visitors’ first conference victory, 65-55.
“(Georgia Southern) hit some shots, I will say that,” Antoine said. “But they’re playing with a lot of confidence, they’re starving for a win. A team that’s 0-7 in conference, you’re starving for a win. And we gave them that confidence early and we were never able to put it out.”
Hood led the Bobcats with 21 points and eight rebounds, followed by Taylor with 19 points and five assists. Leavitt and Holle went 1-16 from the field for seven points. Brown scored a game-high 31 points.
Texas State (9-11, 4-4 Sun Belt) will head north to UT Arlington on Saturday to face the Lady Mavericks at 2 p.m.
