Junior guard Mark Drone hit a layup with 0.5 seconds remaining in overtime to give Texas State men’s basketball a 93-92 win against the South Alabama Jaguars on Saturday in Strahan Arena.
After Texas State head coach Terrence Johnson called a timeout while the Bobcats trailed by one point with 5.6 seconds remaining in overtime, Texas State had a 51.3% chance to win, according to ESPN. Drone dribbled the ball down the court in about five seconds to score the game-winning layup.
“Tyrel [Morgan] caught, flipped the ball right back to Mark [Drone], [I] put Tylan Pope in the corner because he can make a corner three and put [Coleton Benson] in the other corner because he can make a corner three,” Johnson said. “And just have Joshua [O’Garro] space and trail and try to rebound it, but the play worked to perfection.”
The Bobcats earned revenge with the victory, as they lost to the Jaguars in overtime a week ago.
“At that time last week, we didn’t embrace overtime,” Johnson said. “We had to go to overtime rather than got to go overtime. It’s all about changing your perspective. We had a different perspective today about bonus basketball and those guys took full advantage of it. I’m proud of them.”
Morgan led the Bobcats in scoring with 20 points, and Pope attained a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds. Three Bobcats scored in double figures coming off the bench, with Benson being the second-highest-scoring Bobcat with 19 points. O’Garro had 13 points and Drone finished with 11.
Despite the loss, Barry Dunning Jr. tied the program record for South Alabama with 46 points, shooting 13-for-20 from the field, nine of those shots being 3-pointers. He also went 11-for-11 from the free throw line. Senior forward Elijah Ormiston finished behind Dunning Jr. in points with 12.
Texas State shot 46.4% from 3-point range, making 13, and had six more rebounds than the Jaguars with 34. Turnovers were also significantly cleaned up this game for the Bobcats, only having nine compared to 17 in their last matchup.
“A win like this can have a good trajectory on where we want to go,” Benson said. “So we just [have] to take it day by day, win the day every day. Coach preaches that to us and [makes] winning a byproduct.”
Although the game was close for the most part, South Alabama had many chances to put the game away.
With 15.4 seconds left in regulation, Texas State and South Alabama were tied at 82 a piece, and the Jaguars had the ball. Dunning Jr. got the ball and shot it while being wide open from 3-point range but missed. South Alabama grabbed the offensive rebound twice but came up empty on both attempts, sending the game to overtime.
The Bobcats look to extend their win streak to three for the first time in over a month as the Troy Trojans, who look to avoid a season conference sweep, are set to head to San Marcos.
The Bobcats will face the Trojans at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at Strahan Arena. The game will be available to stream on ESPN+.
