The Texas State men’s Bobcats travelled to Conway, South Carolina, to take on the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers at the HTC Center Thursday night.
The Texas State Bobcats had two standout performances from senior guard Mark Drone and freshman forward DJ Hall.
Drone matched his season high of 24 points, with 22 of those points coming in the second half alone. Shooting 9-21 from the field, also making 6-6 free throws and having 5 rebounds along with one steal. Hall dropped 23 points, shooting 6-13 from the field, also shooting a perfect 11-11 from the charity stripe while tallying 7 boards.
Texas State started the game by rattling off the first 11 of the 16 points; however, things would take a turn for the worse as the next 11 shots would result in only one basket for the Bobcats. Coastal took those failed possessions to go on a 19-2 run to go up on the Bobcats.
Sophomore guard Franck Emmou put a halt to the Coastal run by knocking down a turnaround jumper. From then on, it was junior guard Jaelyn Lee’s time to take control of the offense, scoring six straight points to go on an 8-2 run for the Bobcats to close the deficit to a three-point game under three minutes left to play, sending the team into halftime down 32-27.
Back from halftime, Drone scored first for the bobcats knocking down two free throws, with fifth-year guard Kyndall Davis following suit with a floater. The Chanticleers would then go on to extend their lead to 53-40.
However, the Bobcats were coming with Hall scoring seven straight and Drone topping off a 9-0 run to get Texas State within four points with 3 minutes left. Drone then took over, commanding the offense, scoring 16 of the team’s last 19 points with his last bucket to take Texas State out in front with the score being 70-65.
Drones last minute efforts would ultimately come up short as Coastal made it a one-point game with a made jumper and two free throws.
But, with 1.1 seconds left on the clock, Hall was whistled for a foul contesting a three-pointer on the left wing, which resulted in three points knocked down from the line and a win of 72-70 for the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. Improving their record to (12-9, 5-4 Sun Belt), with Texas State falling to (11-10, 4-5 Sun Belt).
Next up, the Bobcats will travel to James Madison University for a 12 p.m. tip on Saturday, Jan. 24, at the Atlantic Union Bank Center in Harrisonburg, VA. The game will be available to stream on ESPN+
