Bobcats hoping to hit WAC tourney jackpot
Men’s, women’s teams to play next week in Las Vegas.
Like most everyone else who boards an airplane heading for Las Vegas, the Texas State men’s and women’s basketball teams head to the Nevada desert next week looking to get on a hot streak, hopeful that they’ll end up big winners.
Both teams will begin play at the WAC tournament, which will be held in the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas just steps from the casino floor. The tournament starts March 12 and both Bobcats teams will be among their fields’ lowest four seeds. That means both would need to win four games in five days to capture the league’s automatic NCAA tournament bid.
The women’s team had lost seven of its last eight heading into Thursday’s home game with Utah State; the Bobcats host San Jose State on Saturday to close the regular season.
“We believe that we can make something happen in the tournament because no one on this team has given up,” women’s coach Zenarae Antoine said. “We have the knowledge and skill to get the job done. We just have to do it.”
The men, who were 920 overall and 4-12 in the WAC heading into Thursday’s road game at Utah State, finish at San Jose State on Saturday.
Men’s coach Doug Davalos knows his team will have to play better and have luck on its side if it hopes for success in Vegas.
“I just want us to play well,” Davalos said. “The bottom line is we are all going to the WAC tournament and we have to play well down the stretch and carry over the things that work. We just need to go into the tournament and get some wins. We have to hold our own. We are a good team.”
Softball struggles: Texas State’s softball team will be happy to see the bulk of its tournament schedule almost done; the Bobcats have won only three of 19 games through the first four weeks of the season.
The Bobcats, who were the preseason favorites to win the WAC, hoped for a good start. But Texas State did not win a game in the Hilton Houston Classic to open the season, then went 22 in the Louisiana Classic in Lafayette. The past two weekends, the Bobcats managed only one win while hosting back-toback tournaments.
Texas State has been hampered by the loss of starting shortstop Selena Hernandez to a suspension and ace pitcher Anne Marie Taylor, who has started only four games because of a knee injury.
And things don’t get easier in the near future; the Bobcats play fifthranked Texas in a threegame series this weekend (Friday and Sunday in Austin, Saturday in San Marcos).
Cunningham at NCAA indoors: Senior pole vaulter Logan Cunningham is Texas State’s lone entry in this year’s NCAA indoor track and field championships, which begin Friday in Fayetteville, Ark.
Cunningham, who tied for eighth at the 2012 NCAA indoors and earned indoor All-America honors, is seeded eighth.