Freshman forward DJ Hall powered Texas State (16-11, 8-6) past the Troy Trojans (17-9, 9-4) with 21 points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals as the Bobcats won 74-62 for their fifth straight victory Wednesday night and move to 14-1 at Strahan Arena this season.
“No games seem to be too big or too small for him,” Texas State head coach Terrence Johnson said.
Hall shot 9/15 from the floor, another efficient night for the freshman forward who was shooting 54.5% on the season coming into Wednesday’s game, which ranked seventh among freshman in all of college basketball.
The Bobcats never trailed in the game. The win signifies the maturation of coach Johnson’s team, having lost handedly in Troy, Alabama back on New Year’s Eve.
“I think this team is growing,” Johnson said. “We’ve settled into a rotation, guys are starring in their role, all right, and I think we’re getting better and better every single game.”
The Bobcat defense was stifling on Wednesday night, holding the Trojans to just 62 points on 36% shooting, a drastic improvement from the game in December when the Trojans scored 100 points on 61% shooting.
Troy came into this game sitting atop the Sun Belt Conference standings, the loss knocked them down to second and the win propelled Texas State to fifth place.
“This was the absolute most important game of our season thus far,” coach Johnson said. “And the next one is the most important game of our season moving forward.”
Senior guard Mark Drone added 15 points, six rebounds and two assists, as he continues to shoulder the offensive load along with Hall.
“We knew that if we won this game, we would not only going to be good in the rankings, but also it was going to help us have momentum going to the next game Saturday,” Drone said.
Sophomore guard Kaden Gumbs added three more steals to his Sun Belt Conference leading total of 33. Gumbs also scored 11 points and added four rebounds and four assists.
It was Greek Night at Strahan arena which lead to an incredible atmosphere and a crowd of 2,741.
“The crowd was crazy man, like they need to be like that every time. We feed off that,” senior center Tay Knox said.
The Bobcats have just four regular season games remaining, two of which are at home. Texas State’s next game will be this Saturday at 2:00 p.m. when they host UL Monroe at Strahan Arena.
