TXST WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
The Bobcats trailed by two against the rival Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns at 48-46 with less than four minutes to go as star player Saniya Burks struggled to find her rhythm on offense.
Having just made nine points, Burks was encouraged by senior Deja Jones to continue shooting “[Burks] was having a rough first half, and she was in her head,” Jones said. “I told her, ‘Keep shooting, this is your half. You’re gonna to be reason why we stretch out this game.’” In a span of a minute, Burks scored nine consecutive points for the Bobcats, hitting two three point shots, a layup and three free throws to give Texas State the lead at 57-51 en route to a 6255 win over the rival Cajuns.
“My team motivated me to keep shooting,” Burks said. “I was in my head for the first half and I just had to get out of it for my team because I really wanted to win.”
The Bobcats improve to 4-6 overall and 1-0 in conference play while the Cajuns fall to 0-10 and 01 in conference play.
“They battled all the way through,” Head Coach Zenarae Antoine said. “They kept fighting and kept finding ways, especially Saniya [Burks] not having her best scoring night in the first half. Neither did Kyra [Anderson], to be honest with you, they both were struggling. But the team stayed with it. The team rallied behind them and we found other players.”
One of those players was junior guard Taleiyah Gibbs who finished the night with a career high 14 points and five rebounds.
“Taleiyah stepped up for us,” Antoine said. “We all know what she can do. She actually was our highlight in our pregame talk. We did a highlight and she was that feature. She had a great week of practice so really proud of the effort and excited to be able to start out at home with the win” Similar to building up Burks, Jones continued to motivate Gibbs knowing the potential she has.
“Taleiyah is what you call a gentle giant,” Gibbs said. “She could touch the backboard every day in practice. I tell her, ‘You need to be touching the glass [every game]. After the game, I told her, “this is how you’re supposed to be every single day.’ I’m just getting her out of that comfort zone, and I tell her this at practice too. Taleiyah is real quiet but with me, she opens up a little, so just giving her that confidence, because we know she can hoop.”
With the win, making it the first time the Bobcats have won consecutive games this season, Texas State looks to continue building up momentum going into conference.
We didn’t play our best, so we know that we could play even better,” Jones said. “It just gives us extra motivation to just go into the next game and just compete.”
Texas State will be back on the court Saturday against ULM. The Warhawks enter the game with a 5-5 overall and a coming off a 79-58 loss to Arkansas State.
Tip-off is set for 12 p.m. Saturday at Strahan Arena.
