TXST MEN’S BASKETBALL
The magic of Southwest Texas was in the air at Strahan as Texas State defeated Old Dominion 81-64 as part of SWT Throwback Night.
The Bobcats improve to 13-11 overall and 6-6 in conference play.
“What a performance by the Bobcats, probably one of our most complete games of the year,” Head Coach Terrence Johnson said “A lot of it had to do with the preparation and just the build up of SWT week, knowing what it meant for Coach [Donte] Mathis. It always seems to be his scout (scouting report), which we appreciate just because of the blood, sweat, and tears that he’s put into this program and this place. He’s a very prideful guy so we’re just thankful for all the alumni that came back, supported us, cheered us on and pulled us through. We have some times in that game where we could have folded, but we fought. The fans appreciated it and we appreciate them.”
The Bobcat offense started off hot as freshman forward D.J. Hall knocked down two threepointers, leading to Texas State taking an early 17-6 lead over the Monarchs.
Texas State pushed their lead up to 15 points late in the first half after a three-pointer from Franck Emmou, before the Monarchs went on a run to cut their deficit down to nine, as the Bobcats led 42-33 at halftime.
The Monarchs made a layup to start the second half, only for Texas State to respond with a 13-0 run to extend their lead to 55-35.
Old Dominion failed to shrink the deficit back to single digits as the Bobcats rolled to a 81-64 win.
Hall led the team in scoring with a career-high 24 points along with six rebounds. Senior Mark Drone was second in scoring with 12 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. Emmou also scored 12 points for the Bobcats.
“I feel like coming to the game that the focus was going to be around me, especially with [Kaden Gumbs] getting into foul trouble,” Drone said. “So I knew that by drawing attention and getting the defenders to help, that’d help me create open buckets for my teammates they were converting. So I appreciate them a lot for that.”
The home win improves the Bobcats’ record at Strahan to 12-1, the most home wins since 2022.
“It really starts with protecting the home floor,” Drone said. “We say before every game, there’s a difference between visitors and unwanted guests, and we treat every opponent like an unwanted guest so we try to get them out of here as fast as we can. We go into every game here at home, starting on defense and we let that play into the offense.”
Texas State will be back on the road Wednesday when the Bobcats take the Georgia Southern Eagles. The Eagles enter the game with a 14-10 overall record and a 6-5 conference record, coming off a 69-60 loss to the Ragin’ Cajuns last Saturday.
Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. Wednesday at Georgia Southern.
