Following the Bobcats’ 82-63 loss Thursday night to the Troy University Trojans, Texas State needed a win against South Alabama in order to stay ahead in a tight race ahead of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
Behind Toshua Levitt’s 20 points, the Texas State Bobcats would outscore the South Alabama Jaguars 46-18 in the second half on route to a mammoth 77-45 victory. To say the Bobcats rebounded from their loss would a massive understatement.
With the victory in hand well into the second half, the Bobcats stayed ahead in the four-team race for a first-round bye in the tournament between Texas State, Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, and South Alabama. Head coach Zenarae Antoine said the team was able to bounce back after a rough game Thursday night.
“Being able to bounce back from (a) game against a really tough team (Troy),” Antoine said. “Knowing that we are facing another tough team (South Alabama) who’s a good scoring team…. our team did a good job defensively.”
The first half was a defensive battle as both teams did not score a field goal until the middle of the period. With a combination of good defense and bad free throw shooting from South Alabama, Texas State held an 18-13 lead by shooting 83 percent from the free throw line.
Starting off the second period, Texas State exploded with an 8-0 run to take a 26-13 lead. In fact, the Jaguars would not score its first points of the second quarter until less than six minutes were left. But South Alabama would advantage from there on, outscoring the Bobcats 14-5 to end the half and cutting into Texas State’s lead, trailing 31-27.
The third quarter turned out to be a tense back-and-forth affair as neither Texas State or South Alabama led more than two points. But with 5:45 left in the third period, Bobcats took advantage of their great defense by responding with a 16-2 run and extending Texas State’s lead to 54-35 to end the third quarter.
The Bobcats kicked the fourth quarter off with 10-0 run and defensively shut down the South Alabama offense. Texas State would finish the quarter outscoring the Jaguars 22-10 on route to the victory. Senior guard Toshua Levitt said the team’s defensive battles were integral to the win.
“We gave them (Troy) a lot of second-chance points,” Levitt said. “But we just knew we had to play better defense and not give people a chance to shoot three’s against zone and man.”
Along with Levitt’s 20 points, which including going 6-9 from the three-point range, Jaeda Reed contributed with a season-high 12 points and eight rebounds as did freshman forward Da’Nasia Hood who scored 11 points.
Texas State faces another tough challenge next Saturday on Senior Day against UT-Arlington. While Texas State is battling for a first-round bye, UTA is playing for the Sun Belt regular season title which sets up a massive battle between the two rivals. Antoine said the game posses huge implications for the team as they head into the postseason.
“It’s a huge rivalry game,” Antoine said. “The Texas State-UTA game across the board has huge implications for everyone…this is what March is all about.”