Just after the women’s blowout win and days after an easy victory over Cameron in an exhibition match, the Texas State men’s basketball team kicked off their season with a high-scoring 103-45 win over Texas Lutheran at home on Tuesday night.
The Bobcats moved to a 1-0 overall record as they head further into the season.
The win was largely due to the ‘Cats’ tremendous shooting efficiency. Texas State’s Achilles heel was free throws last season, but the Bobcats proved their improvement with an 88 percent efficiency from the line. Texas State also posted 58 percent from the field and 50 percent from the three-point range.
In the first 10 minutes of the game, the Bobcats scored 32 points without missing a single shot.
Senior forward Nijal Pearson led the Bobcats with 19 points for the night on a respectable 8-11 shooting record from the field.
Not too far behind was senior Eric Terry, who contributed 18 points and 9 rebounds to the team. Terry’s aggressive play in the paint forced the Bulldogs to foul, putting him on the line 10 times for a perfect 10 shots landed.
“As a big, I am going to get fouled a lot,” Terry said. “So for me to stand up on the line and make free throws… (it’s) a pretty big factor.”
Coach Kaspar said that the team played to his expectations.
“The guys executed a majority of the things I asked for entering this game,” Kaspar said. “I am very impressed with our free throw shooting tonight and I hope that continues.”
The Bobcats outplayed the Bulldogs in every major statistical category. However, offensive rebounding was the only struggle Texas State faced, with the ‘Cats allowing Texas Lutheran to crash the glass and record 20 offensive rebounds.
Kaspar said that although most of their goals were reached, he was concerned about was allowing TLU’s 20 rebounds.
“I asked them to get 25 turnovers (and) they got 22,” Kaspar said. “I asked them to hold them to less than 50 (and) they did. I asked them to keep [Texas Lutheran’s] percentages under 35% (and) they shot 23%. The one thing we didn’t do that I asked them to do was keep their rebounds 10 or under and they didn’t do that.”
Strahan was packed with 2,752 people, on Tuesday, something that the team needed and were pleased with, Kaspar said.
“I was very pleased with tonight’s crowd,” Kaspar said. “Last year, we would not have won 24 games without the fans and tonight was a great start for this year.”
The Bobcats will travel to Colorado for their first road match on Tuesday to face the Air Force Academy.