TXST WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Despite a game-high 27 points from sophomore Saniya Burks, the Bobcats were unable to secure the win as Texas State fell to Troy 67-63.
Texas State falls to 3-4 in conference play and 7-10 overall while Troy improves to 15-3 overall and 6-1 in conference play.
“This game just makes me more sad than anything else as far as the ball,” Head Coach Zenarae Antoine said. “If we had a little bit more time, maybe the score would have been different. It was back and forth, it was highly competitive.
“The sadness really comes from I feel like the team was locked into the scout and we practiced really well tonight. It’s hard when you play the number one team in the conference and you have them by the ropes and you slip by you by two possessions.”
Despite the loss, Antoine was proud of the Bobcats’ defensive play which held Troy to its lowest offensive output in conference play, which led to Texas State outscoring the Trojans 26-10 in transition.
“The toughness that I saw that I do like, we need to build on,” Antoine said. “Right now we’re sitting in mid-January and we held them to 67 points. That’s excellent defense and we did a better job boxing out.
“Not phenomenal, but we did a better job boxing out and we did enough that it gained the possessions that we needed to get out and transition. We clearly beat them in transition quite a bit. Our bench produced when we had to go deeper.”
Troy took a 10-0 lead to start the first period but the Bobcats responded with a 13-3 run to tie the game at 13-13.
The Bobcats took their first lead of the game at 22-21 in the second period after a three-pointer from Burks before going into halftime up 36-32.
Texas State and Troy traded the lead back and forth in the third period with the Trojans up 5148 going into the fourth quarter.
Despite the Trojans holding the lead for the entirety of the fourth period, Troy could not put away the Bobcats as Texas State clawed back furiously to retake the lead.
Trojans led 65-59 with just 22 seconds remaining in the game but back-to-back buckets from senior Amyria Walker and sophomore Kyra Anderson made it a one-possesion game at 65-63 with just five seconds left in the game. Troy sealed the win with a pair of free throws to secure the win 67-63.
Burks led the team in scoring with 27 points, shooting 7-14 from three-point range. Anderson led the team in rebounds with 10 followed by freshman Angela Carroll with nine points.
With the Bobcats’ tenacity on defense and unwillingness to give up, Antoine hopes to build off the loss as Texas State goes deeper into conference play.
“So those are all the things that you need as you get closer to February,” Antoine said. “You need to be playing great basketball. I am proud of and happy that we are able to really see some of the fruits of our labor as far as what we’ve been preaching and practicing within practice to get that to correlate into games.”
Texas State returns home Wednesday as the Bobcats face off with the App State Mountaineers. App State enters the game with a 8-9 overall record and a 1-6 conference record following a loss to Georgia State.
Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday at Strahan Arena.
Freshman Angela Carroll battles down low during the Bobcats home game against Troy. Carroll had seven points and nine rebounds against the Trojans. Daily Record photo by Gerald Castillo
