Texas State women’s basketball (10-8, 1-5 Sun Belt Conference) narrowly fell to Troy University (8-8, 5-1 Sun Belt Conference) 92-85 Thursday afternoon at Strahan Arena.
Texas State junior forward Jaylin Foster and graduate student guard Ja’Niah Henson established the tone of the night by splitting a nine-point scoring run three minutes into the game. Henson scored a career-high 27 points, topping her previous record of 21 points against ULM earlier in the season.
“There are a lot of good things from this game, but there are a lot of similarities between this game and the game against [ULM], as far as us not taking care of the basketball and not having a good start,” Texas State Head Coach Zenarae Antoine said. “I thought we did a good job making the adjustments we needed coming out of halftime, similar to [the ULM game]. The start is something that we need to fix.”
After Texas State’s scoring run, Troy responded with a 13-point run to regain the lead late in the first quarter.
Henson scored 11 points in the second quarter to bring Texas State within four points at halftime.
In the third quarter, Texas State rallied from a nine-point deficit and finished off the quarter with a last-second three-pointer scored by Henson, bringing the score to 51-47 going into the fourth quarter.
Foster led Texas State’s comeback in the fourth quarter scoring 10 points. The Bobcats trailed in the final minutes, forcing them to foul Troy and allowing the Trojans to put the game on ice from the charity stripe.
Troy senior forward Ja’Mia Hollings netted 19 points with four steals, while Tai’Sheka Porchia added 16 points.
Despite maintaining a higher possession rate throughout the game, Troy’s 27 points off of Texas State turnovers was the deciding factor in the outcome.
Texas State will look to rebound from the loss against its next opponent Arkansas State (9-7, 3-3 Sun Belt Conference).
Tip-off between Texas State and Arkansas State is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 20, at Strahan Arena. The game will be available to stream on ESPN+.
