College Basketball: Against the ropes?

By Tyler Mayforth

San Marcos — In her first few years as head coach of the women’s basketball team at Texas State, Suzanne Fox watched the men’s team with awe.

Fox wondered how the Bobcats could win countless close games and emerge unscathed time after time.

“When Coach (Mike) Miller was here with Jeff Foster, Dante Mathis and all of those guys, I asked him, ‘What happened?,’ Fox said. “He said, ‘We have players and they make plays.’”

Right now, that’s the thing holding back Fox’s current squad. Texas State has 16 players on its roster, but none have stepped up when it mattered.

The Bobcats are currently on a four-game losing streak, three of which were in their first three Southland Conference tilts. Texas State lost to both UT-Arlington and Texas A&M-Corpus; Christi by six and Central Arkansas by 12.

It wasn’t until the final four minutes against the Islanders and Sugar Bears that the Bobcats faded.

“We played well in Corpus and led the entire game. That was a hard loss because we had done a lot of things well,” Fox said. “Against Central Arkansas, we got the game back to four points with six minutes left and gave up an offensive rebound and foul. If we block out and get that one possession after going on a 6-0 run when we were down 10, it’s a completely different game.

“It’s just those little-bitty things that are holding us back. I told our kids that we’re right on the cusp of getting over that hump, but it comes down to individual players making plays and teams making plays.”

Texas State has a perfect opportunity to fix the small things tonight against Sam Houston State. The Bearkats come into the game with an overall record of 3-11 and 0-2 in the SLC. 

When SHSU last visited Strahan Coliseum, it ruined the Bobcats’ season. The Bearkats knocked down 70 percent of their shots in the second half and eliminated Texas State from SLC postseason contention.

It was also senior night for the Bobcats.

“You remember it,” Fox said, “but since we have so many new people, they’re not going to be able to relate to it.”

If Texas State wants to top SHSU tonight at 7 p.m., the team needs to improve its rebounding and get to the line. 

The Bobcats have struggled with both during its three-game conference losing streak. Opponents outrebounded Texas State 133-102 and went to the charity stripe 55 more times than the Bobcats.

“You look at all three games and we’ve given teams second-chance points. We gave 25 second-chance points to Central Arkansas. We gave 15 to Texas A&M-Corpus; Christi and nine to UTA. We’ve lost by six, six and 12. Those are free points that we can’t be giving away,” Fox said. “We’ve also got to stop fouling and go towards the basket. We have to stop settling for jump shots. If we’re settling for 15-foot jumpers, we’re not going to give ourselves the opportunity to get to the free-throw line.”

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