Bobcats open 2023-2024 season with dominant win over Arlington Baptist

Texas State opened up 2023-2024 on the right foot as the Bobcats defeated the Arlington Baptist Patriots, 90-48, in front of the home crowd faithful.

Head Coach Zenarae Antoine talked about the excitement of this year’s team, which only returns five players from last year’s roster and seven newcomers.

“What is most exciting about this team is that they are so new,” Antoine said. “The challenges of bringing new faces and to find ways to compete in the Sun Belt Conference is exciting for me. You play the game to compete and you want to push yourself, your staff and players to a place to see if we can do it.”

One of the reasons for success for the Bobcats was the ability to rebound.

Texas State nabbed 24 offensive rebounds and 36 defensive rebounds in the win.

“The fact [we] can rebound well is what makes us different from what we ever had here at Texas State,” Antoine said. “I’ve gone through different iterations of teams here. When I came in, we were one of the best three point shooting teams in the country for quite some time. Then it changed to where we were more balanced. Now I’m looking at a great forward group and I’m proud of their efforts.”

The Bobcats got off to a slow start against the Patriots as the Texas State offense got off to a slow start as Arlington Baptist managed to stay within four points for the majority of the quarter.

However, there was no panic within the huddle as Texas State regrouped for the second quarter.

“It was about getting to who we are,” Antoine said. “Getting back to our base defense, base offense. A lot of it was jitters and the stress of (Arlington Baptist) staying with us, hitting some shots and us getting into foul trouble. So just working through that and once we had success, we got comfortable.”

With the game tied up at 23-23 with 6:28 left in the second period, Texas State exploded by closing out the period on a 21-2 as the Bobcats took control of the game at 44-25.

Arlington Baptist never threatened to get close to the scoreboard as the Bobcats rolled through the next periods en route to the 90-48 win.

Junior forward Jaylin Foster helped lead the Bobcats with 10 points and five rebounds.

A transfer from Western Kentucky who graduated from Cibolo Steele High School, being able to stay calm and refocus after the first quarter helped the Bobcats overcome the slow start.

“We came together just staying poised,” Foster said. “Not letting them speed us up but playing at our tempo and doing what we practice.”

Returning back to the Bobcats from last year’s team was senior forward Nicole Leff.

Capturing 11 points with seven rebounds, Leff added how the communication between both the forwards and the point guards was critical to not only tonight’s game but for the Bobcats moving forward.

“Our huddles are very important,” Leff said, “The guards are telling us we need to stay poised, so our mini huddles are very important for how we respond. At halftime we truely responded.”

Texas State returns to play this Saturday as the Bobcats host Bowling Green as part of the MACSun Belt Challenge.

Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at Strahan Arena.

cmcwilliams@sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc