TXST WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Texas State’s struggles continued as the Bobcats fell to the UTRGV Vaqueros 77-65.
Texas State falls to 0-4 for the season while UTRGV improves to 31.
”This is really tough,” Head Coach Zenarae Antoine said. “It’s tough for the coaching staff. It’s tough for myself. We chose a preseason conference schedule so we are competitive to get ourselves ready for the Sun Belt, and we find ourselves coming up short in different ways in different games.”
After a high scoring first period where the Bobcats trailed 21-16, Texas State was outscored 16-3 in the second period and entered halftime down 37-19. Despite the Bobcats outscoring the Vaqueros in the second half, the second period deficit was too much to overcome as the Bobcats dropped their game to UTRGV.
On the Bobcats second period struggles, Antoine pointed out the team’s shot selection and struggles against UTRGV transition offense.
“We took some ill advised shots,” Antoine said. “We did not do a good job of taking high percentage shots. So a very simple explanation for our student athletes is when you take shots that aren’t necessarily in flow for you, then your rebounders aren’t in place. People aren’t prepared. You put a lot of stress on your transition so [UTRGV] got a lot of transition opportunities.
“When you give up those easy buckets that just require effort of pushing the ball, then it puts more stress again on your offense so it’s this vicious cycle.”
Sophomore Saniya Burks had another standout game, scoring a team high 24 points in a bounceback game. Freshman Kaliyah Murphy was second in scoring with 13 points followed by graduate senior Deja Jones with 10. Murphy and sophomore Kyra Anderson led the team in rebounds with six each.
Texas State will continue to search for their first win of the season as the Bobcats make the trip down to the coast for a showdown with the Texas A&M Corpus Christi Islanders. The Islanders are coming off a 85-62 loss to Santa Clara last Tuesday.
Tip-off is set for 11 a.m. Thursday at Dugan Wellness Center in Corpus Christi.
