Leads vanish in two losses
Men’s, women’s basketball teams fall at Georgia State.
The Texas State men’s and women’s basketball teams had second-half leads Thursday against Georgia State, but neither could hold on as the Bobcats dropped both ends of a Sun Belt Conference doubleheader in Atlanta.
In the men’s game, Texas State’s Ojai Black had a chance to tie it at the buzzer, but his NBA-range 3-point attempt missed, allowing Georgia State to escape with a 59-56 victory.
Texas State was led by Cameron Naylor with 15 points. Ethan Montalvo had 14 points — 12 of them on 3-pointers. Emani Gant grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds but scored just five points.
“There were a lot of good things out there tonight, but we have to do a better job of taking better shots and of not getting into a running game against a team like Georgia State,” Texas State coach Danny Kaspar said. “We played well in spots, but there were too many negatives. Our effort was great, and I’m proud of that.”
The Bobcats are 9-10 overall and 3-7 in the Sun Belt entering Saturday’s game at Georgia Southern, which Texas State beat 80-66 on Dec. 30. The Bobcats have lost five of their past six games and will begin a fourgame homestand Tuesday with a nationally televised (ESPN2) game against Texas-Arlington.
The women’s team had its own shooting trouble against Georgia State, going the final eight-plus minutes without a field goal in a 73-62 loss.
Raven Burns led the Bobcats (10-10, 5-5) with 18 points on a careerhigh five 3-pointers. Ericka May had a game-high 11 rebounds — the sixth time this season and 10th in her career she’s recorded double-digit rebounds.
Track teams look strong: Texas State had a weekend full of breakthroughs for the men’s and women’s track and field teams in the Vanderbilt Invitational, one of the top meets in the country, and the University of Houston’s invitational.
The sprinters took top billing for Texas State as the men’s 4x400-meter relay team of De’Marcus Porter, Anthony Johnson, De’Quad Binder and Dexter Lee vaulted to the top spot in the Sun Belt Conference with a time of 3:11.93 at Vanderbilt, the fastest indoor mile relay time for a Bobcats team since 2014.
In women’s sprints, Tramesha Hardy, Sydni Willis, Amber Gilmore and Esther Oyetunde turned in a time of 3:48.07 at Vanderbilt to move into second place in the conference.
Individually, Hardy ran a 24.55 in the 200-meter dash and a 7.61 in the 60-meter dash. Her time in the 200 puts her second in the Sun Belt standings, and she is fourth in the 60 early in her redshirt freshman season.