Louisiana knocks out Texas State in Sun Belt second round, 71-46

The lid on Texas State’s basket took too long to remove.

The No. 6 seed Bobcats had no issues hitting shots in its opening game of the Sun Belt tournament, sinking 50.8% of their attempts in an 80-66 win over No. 11 seed South Alabama on Wednesday. But Friday's second-round matchup against Louisiana in Pensacola, Fla., was another story.

The maroon and gold missed all 13 of their first shots in the opening quarter and committed three turnovers in the process. The blistering cold start allowed the Ragin’ Cajuns to jump ahead 12-0 early on.

Graduate forward Gabby Standifer finally broke through for Texas State, draining a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 1:26 left in the first. But the slow start proved too much for the Bobcats to recover from as the team was eliminated by Louisiana, 71-46.

“We did not play defense tonight. And the one thing you need in postseason, as a lot of y'all basketball fans know, is to have defense. And we talk a lot about defense traveling,” Antoine said. “If you look at the X's and O's, it was defense. I don't think there's much else to say outside of that.”

Ragin’ Cajuns head coach Garry Brodhead said his team planned to pressure Texas State senior point guard Kennedy Taylor on defense to take the ball out of her hands. It forced the Bobcats out of their comfort zone, relying on other players to run the offense and find points.

“I definitely feel like I did feel that pressure today,” Taylor said. “I mean, it's disappointing, you know, with the outcome. But respect to Louisiana, they did do a pretty good job.”

Standifer and fifth-year senior guard Jo’Nah Johnson came off the bench to help get Texas State back into a rhythm. Johnson drilled a triple and Standifer hit a pair of free throws to help build a 7-0 run and cut the deficit down to 16-12 midway through the second quarter. But the Cajuns halted the run and stayed in front, going into the half up 25-17.

The maroon and gold began chipping away at the lead again in the third, getting it down to 32-27 at the halfway point after a 3 from sophomore guard Sierra Dickson. They couldn’t keep it going, though, as Louisiana closed out the period on a 13-2 run and didn’t look back.

The Cajuns outscored Texas State 26-17 in the final quarter to clinch the win and advance to the conference semifinals. Louisiana sophomore guard Makayia Hallmon and freshman guard Lanay Wheaton finished the game with 18 points each.

“(We needed to be better at) our ability to be able to contain off the bounce, not allowing easy points in the paint,” Antoine said. “And honestly, a little more patience offensively, because they're a good defensive team, because it put a lot of pressure on our on our defense.”

Taylor led the Bobcats with 12 points, followed by Hood with 11 and Johnson with nine. The team finished the season with a 15-14 overall record, going 9-6 in Sun Belt play. Texas State will move on without Johnson, Standifer and senior forward Jaeda Reed. Taylor, Hood and three other fourth-year players will decide whether or not to use their extra season of eligibility.

Friday’s loss was disappointing to the maroon and gold. But Antoine was still proud of what her players were able to accomplish.

“I'll never let the final game of the season define a season and what (Taylor and Johnson) mean, in addition to the other women on our team, all 14 young women mean to our team,” Antoine said. “It's a very difficult day in your final game — very few teams in the country get to end with a win. And like I said, I'm not going to let this define who we are within this season and how well we played in February leading up into this game.”