The Texas State Men’s basketball team fell short to the Appalachian State Mountaineers, Saturday, Feb. 3 in Strahan Coliseum.
Coming off a loss, the Bobcats drop to 14-11 overall and 7-5 in the Sun Belt Conference. The game started with the Mountaineers winning the opening tip and with just over a minute into the contest, a jumper seized by senior forward Immanuel King.
With 9:15 left in the first half, the Mountaineers had a six-point advantage with an 11-4 run. Freshman guard Shelby Adams drove for a layup and senior guard Deris Duncan hit a jumper to cut the deficit to two.
However, at the 5:12 mark, the Mountaineers put up seven of the next nine points to lead 23-16. Another jumper from the Mountaineers made it 27-20 with 2:44 left on the clock.
Texas State locked down defensively and did not allow the visitors to score the rest of the half.
Junior forward Alex Peacock meeting the charity stripe after a foul allowed the Bobcats to take a 28-27 lead into halftime. After the second half, the Bobcats continued the lead with senior guard Tyler Blount for three from the left corner.
With 47-45 on the board, redshirt-sophomore Eric Terry made a layup to tie the game on the next possession. Adams followed next by drawing a foul and dominating both free throw attempts to retake the lead.
The Mountaineers tied the game with a layup, but Blount returned with a trey ball to put the Bobcats back ahead 52-49 with 6:35 left in the game.
Following four straight points by the Mountaineers, Adams hit an 18-foot jumper to retake the lead to 54-53. The next time down the court, Appalachian State’s Justin Forest made a jumper of his own to give the visitors the advantage again.
With 1:13 on the clock, Texas State was able to tie the game. Sophomore guard Nijal Pearson went 1-for-2 at the charity stripe. In the last 73 seconds, the opponents went 3-for-6 at the free throw line keeping the Bobcats in the game.
At only 2.3 seconds remaining after a made free throw, the ball was inbounded to Pearson. He sent a long pass to an open Blount. Blount made a right corner trey ball attempt, but the ball was off the mark ending with a loss for the Bobcats.
Leading scorer of the night was Pearson who saw double digits with 14 points, three steals and four rebounds. Terry and Junior guard Tre’Larenz Nottingham also finished with four rebounds.
Likewise seeing double digits was Blount with 10 points. He finished 4-for-8 from the field and 2-of-3 on shots beyond the arc. In addition, he had three assists tied for the team best along with Nottingham.
Peacock made all three free throw tries ending with eight points on 2-of-3 shooting. Adams clutched two boards and contributed six points off the bench.
Next up for the Bobcats is a trip to in-state rival The University of Texas Arlington Saturday, Feb. 10 for a 4:15 p.m. tipoff inside of the College Park Center.