Playing on Valentine’s Day, it was appropriate that Texas State showed their love towards their home crowd by securing a program tying 15th home win in the Bobcats 95-84 win over the Louisiana Monroe Warhawks.
Texas State improves to 17-11 and 9-6 in conference play while ULM falls to 4-23 and 1-13 in conference play.
“We knew that coming into the game that we had more to lose,” senior guard Mark Drone said. “So we had to keep playing hard throughout the whole game. We were kind of sluggish in the first half so we knew we had to pick it up defensively in the second half if we wanted to pull it off.”
The Bobcats had led by as many as 13 points in the first half but a late surge by the Warhawks allowed ULM to make it a one-possesion at halftime with Texas State leading 45-43.
In the second half, Texas State pushed their lead to 52-47 but back to back three-pointers by ULM gave the Warhawks the lead at 53-52.
ULM’s lead didn’t last long as Drone knocked down the three pointer to put the Bobcats up 55-53.
The Warhawks and the Bobcats fought furious as ULM tied the game multiple times before Texas State would make a couple shots to extend their lead just enough. With less than 10 minutes remaining in the game, Texas State held on to a 70-68 lead.
Unfortunately for the Warhawks, it marked the last time ULM threatened to take back the lead.
The Bobcats responded by ripping off a 15-1 run to go up 85-69 over the Warhawks. ULM was unable to overcome the deficit as Texas State came away with the victory.
“We had to keep scoring the ball because we weren't getting enough quality stops,” Head Coach Terrence Johnson said. “We were not going to win many games while we give up 84 points then, I'm just going to be honest with y'all, when somebody has 31 points or when the team shoots 54% from the 3 and from the field.
“But we were pretty good offensively too. So there's a few nights where we're going to look like this. Hopefully not too many, but I would say we needed to score the ball tonight and we did that.”
Freshman forward D.J. Hall led the team in scoring with a career high 27 points followed by Drone with 16 points. Freshman forward Robert Fields added 12 points along with junior Kaden Gumbs with 10 points.
The victory has Texas State just one game out of first place in the conference standings on a day where three of the top four teams in the conference lost.
The Bobcats will look to be atop of the conference standings next week as Texas State goes on the road to South Alabama to face-off with the Jaguars. South Alabama currently sits in first place in conference with a 9-4 conference record and a 19-7 overall record coming off a thrilling overtime win against Arkansas State.
