Bobcats go cold in the second half in loss to Troy

A cold stretch offensively of over eight minutes in the second half proved to be costly for Texas State Wednesday night in the Trojan Arena as Troy pulled away for a 78-65 win.

“Troy is an exceptional team,” Head Coach Terrence Johnson said. “I thought we came in with a good game plan and executed that plan early on, but our inability to take care of the ball and get quality stops at crucial times allowed them to make a run in which we were unable to recover from. We are still trying to put a full 40 minutes together. We’re going to keep fighting and believe.”

The result drops the Bobcats to 7-13 on the season and 1-7 in the Sun Belt Conference while the Trojans are now 12-8 and 6-2 in league play.

Dylan Dawson was the lone Bobcat player to reach double-figures with 12 points as he made four three-pointers while also dishing out three assists.

Netting nine points was Brandon Love that saw him make 5-of-7 attempts at the free throw line. The junior also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds while also dishing out two assists.

A trio of Bobcats netted eight points in Kaden Gumbs, Jordan Mason and Davion Sykes. Both Mason and Sykes scored all of their points in the first 20 minutes while Gumbs netted all of his points in the second half.

It was a back-and-forth affair in the first half that saw the lead change 13 times and the score be tied on seven other occasions. The largest lead for the Bobcats came at 22-18 following Dawson’s second three-pointer of the game that capped off a 7-0 run in a 1:05 span.

The Trojans closed out the opening 20 minutes by scoring eight straight points including a trey from Christyon Eugene with two seconds remaining to send the hosts into halftime leading 39-34. They would eventually build an eight-point advantage just over two and a half minutes into the second half.

Nine consecutive points were scored by the Bobcats with six coming from Gumbs on layups to put Texas State ahead 45-44.

The teams would trade the lead thrice more with the last coming on a Coleten Benson jumper to make it 52-50 in favor of the Bobcats. Troy would then go on a 21-2 run over the next eight-plus minutes to put the game away as Texas State missed 13 straight shots. Breaking the shooting drought was Christian Turner with a layup at the 3:20 mark.

Next up for the Bobcats is a trip to the Pelican State to take on Louisiana on Saturday. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. from inside the Cajundome.