The Bobcats picked up their first conference win of the season against the South Alabama Jaguars 67-65 Saturday evening at Strahan Arena.
The Bobcats’ bench made the difference with their hot shooting in the second half in a game that went down to the last seconds.
“If ever South Alabama and Texas State are playing, get a ticket,” Texas State head coach Terrence Johnson said. “It will be worth the price of admission.”
The Bobcats (8-6, 1-1) went into halftime down 14 points and the Jaguars (9-4, 1-1) pushed that lead to 15 points about five minutes into the second half. It looked like the Bobcats’ slump would continue, with turnovers and cold shooting continuing to hold them back.
“When you’re faced with what we were faced with, you can choose to fight or you can choose to flight,” Johnson said. “And I have to give a lot of credit to these guys; they chose to fight.”
Jalen Bolden and Franck Emmou didn’t score a point in the first half. But in the second half, they combined to shoot 7/13 from the floor and 4/8 from the three point line, totaling 18 points and propelling the Bobcats to victory.
Johnson said the credit for the halftime adjustments goes to the players and Bolden echoed that sentiment.
“Like coach said it was mental, I feel like, first half, we weren’t really in it, weren’t playing how we were supposed to, halftime we just talked about it, talked about Arkansas State, that should leave a bad taste in our mouth, leaving that game losing by 19 points,” Bolden said.
Freshman forward DJ Hall once again led the Bobcats in scoring with 15 points and added six rebounds and two assists, helping the Bobcats outrebound the Jaguars 44-28.
Emmou’s three pointer with 1:37 left gave the Bobcats a two point lead. A lead they would not relinquish despite a three point attempt at the buzzer by South Alabama that would have won them the game.
“We fought, we battled, they pushed us, further than we’ve been pushed all season,” Johnson said.
Mark Drone had 11 points and three assists for the Bobcats and Kyndall Davis continues to do whatever his team needs, finishing with eight points, nine rebounds, four steals and a block.
“It’s conference now,” Bolden said. “We had to get this win, especially going into the break, we had to get this win to go 1-1 conference, so I just feel like it was really all mental.”
The Bobcats will look for their second conference victory at 1 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, when they head to Troy, Ala., to face the Trojans.
