College Basketball: Long road trip for the Bobcats

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Texas State junior forward Matt Staff goes up for two of his career-high 23 points during Wednesday night’s win against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Staff and his teammates travel to South Dakota tomorrow night at 7 p.m.

February 17, 2012

By Tyler Mayforth Daily Record Sports The San Marcos Record Fri Feb 17, 2012, 12:56 PM CST

San Marcos — Texas State head coach Doug Davalos took a moment for levity following his team’s 79-61 win Wednesday night over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

The Bobcats just knocked off the Islanders to win their second game in three tries, but their focus was already turned to Saturday’s Bracketbuster match-up against the University of South Dakota on the road.

“We’ll go out there, sit by the campfire and watch the snow come down and get ourselves ready for the next game,” Davalos said. “I’m estatic to go to South Dakota in the middle of winter.”

All jokes aside, Davalos knows the importance of the trip — campfire bonding or not — to his team.

“This is an opportunity for us to get that elusive road win,” Davalos said. “It would be nice to get out there and figure out how to get a road win, because then we have two tough ones on the road that are very significant.”

Before Texas State can resume its push to reach the Southland Conference Tournament, it must go through the DakotaDome in Vermillion, S.D. Tip-off between the Bobcats and Coyotes is set for 7 p.m.

Like Texas State, USD (9-16) hasn’t had much success in conference play. The Coyotes — who play in the Summit League with Oral Roberts — are 4-12, 12.5 games out of first place.

USD is on a bit of a slide as well, losing five of its last seven games. The Coyotes’ most recent setback was an 18-point loss to Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

Finding a scorer hasn’t been a problem for USD, as Louie Krogman and Charlie Westbrook have paced the team throughout the season. Westbrook averages a team-high 18 points per game, while Krogman led the Coyotes the last three games (22, 24, 24).

At home, USD is 6-5, winning two out of its last three games. The Coyotes’ marquee win at home occurred Feb. 9, when they topped archrival South Dakota State, 72-68.

If the Bobcats can continue their solid shooting from Wednesday night’s win — and not fall back to their typical road problems (lack of rebounding, scoring) — they should be in good shape.

A road win would also give Texas State confidence knowing their next two conference games are on the road against unforgiving opponents — Southeastern Louisiana and heated-rival UTSA.

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College Basketball: Long road trip for the Bobcats

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