San Marcos — Just don’t foul.

It has to be that easy for Texas State in the Southland Conference. The Bobcats are known around the conference for fouling, so it’s only obvious to win games, they just need to keep their hands to themselves.

Texas State did just that Saturday afternoon against McNeese State and snapped its two-game losing streak. The Bobcats got 22 more points from the free-throw line than the Cowboys and walked away with a 95-88 win.

“When they put you on the line, those are free throws. They’re free points,“ Texas State forward Cameron Johnson said. “You have to make them.”

In the first half, the only thing keeping the Bobcats in the game were free throws. Texas State (11-12, 5-4 SLC) didn’t shoot particularly well from either the floor (12 for 33) or behind the 3-point line (4 for 16).

While the Bobcats were frigid from the floor, they did enough to draw contact and get to the line. Texas State took 21 free throws in the first half, compared to five by McNeese (8-14, 3-5).

“It’s nice when we get to go the free-throw line and get rewarded for being tough inside. I thought we made tough inside plays all game long,” Bobcats head coach Doug Davalos said. “I thought we found the mismatch all game long and found the hot hand, whether it be J.B. Conley against a guard or Cameron Johnson against a post.”

Conley and Johnson were the hot hands for Texas State in the first half, combining for 25 points.

After halftime, the game belonged to the Bobcats’ bench, especially Tony Bishop and Dylan Hale. Bishop, who met with Davalos earlier last week to talk about playing time, let his game do the talking.

Bishop scored seven of his 11 points in the second half and grabbed 11 rebounds (nine on the defensive glass). Nine of his 11 points were from the free-throw line, where he only missed one attempt.

“That’s what drive you want to see out of a player,” Davalos said. “If you want to play more, play consistently every day and show it by your actions. Not your words. Ever since he said ‘I’m going to start focusing on helping this team however I can,’ he’s been great.”

Hale, who only played nine minutes in the first half, came out focused in the second. The freshman knocked down two huge 3-pointers to extend slim leads by the Bobcats. Hale ended up as one of five Texas State players (four off the bench) to see more than 20 minutes of action.

“Our bench was great. Uriel Segura was great. J.B. Conley was great. Dylan Hale was great. Tony Bishop was great. You go down the line, our bench was great. It was a big pick up, a big lift.”

The Bobcats were also helped by key free-throw shooting down the stretch. Texas State drained nine of its 10 attempts in the final four minutes to put the game out of the Cowboys’ reach.

"When you’re ahead and getting into the bonus before your opponent, it helps a lot," Johnson said. "When you're on the good end of those free throws, you just have to be a competitor and knock them down."