Texas State came away with a 55-52 victory against Louisiana Monroe Thursday, Dec. 18, but the Bobcats, as Head coach Danny Kasper put it, came out “reserved…not aggressive enough.”
The team started out a bit flat with a low scoring first half. The Bobcats’ two leading scorers from the game, sophomore guard Nijal Pearson and junior guard Tre Nottingham, led the way in the first half, with 7 and 9 respectively. Nottingham was able to connect from deep early in this one, going 3-3 from the three-point line in the first half.
Second half was more of what the Bobcat faithful have been used to seeing this season, shooting a reasonable 40% from the field and only committing seven turnovers as a team. Going down to the wire, toughness was the main reason, according to Pearson, that the team closed it out.
“We want to be tough…we want people to know Texas State is tough,” Pearson said. “We want to stay together…no pointing fingers.”
“It looked like we woke up a little bit in the second half,” Kasper said.
Nottingham’s big minutes and timely three-pointers were a big reason the Bobcats were able to hold onto the lead at the end of the game.
“He’s playing like an all-conference player since we have given him the opportunity,” Kasper said.
Its hard to argue that point with the stat line he put up against Louisiana-Monroe.
Pearson was also a key contributor in this game.
“He had a good game offensively…had some good rebounds…scored efficiently for us,” Kasper said.
Kasper was quick to point out that turnovers hurt the Bobcats and kept Louisiana-Monroe in the game.
“Two guys can’t have eight turnovers as much as they’re on the floor,” Kasper said when referring to the turnovers that Pearson and junior forward Alex Peacock had.
“ULM’s coach is an excellent coach, and there are some good players on that team, but they’re just not very deep,” Kasper said.
When asked about this Saturday’s game against Louisiana Lafayette, both the players and coach were looking forward to it.
Pearson was chomping at the bit for Saturday’s game.
“I’m excited about it…I live for games like that,” Pearson said. “There’s going to be some men on the court, and I want to be one of them…I wish Saturday was right now. I’m ready for it.”
“We’re going to need to play stronger Saturday,” Kasper said. “We can’t turn the ball over.”
Saturday will be the first big conference test this season, and with the help of the fans, they aim to come out of that game with two wins this week instead of one.