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Texas State ready for two-step with UT Arlington

Texas State Women's Basketball
Thursday, January 20, 2022

Texas State didn’t have many holes to fill in the offseason, but it did have an important one.

Former guard Avionne Alexander graduated after starting in all 51 of the games she played in during her junior and senior years with the Bobcats. She’d been one of the team’s best defenders during the stretch and a vocal leader for the maroon and gold as the only senior.

Head coach Zenarae Antoine needed to find a new backcourt member — someone who could complement the skills of senior point guard Kennedy Taylor the way Alexander had. But she didn’t want an exact replica of Alexander.

“When you lose a player, you don't try to replace that player,” Antoine said. “What you do try to do is just enhance your roster.”

Antoine brought in fifth-year senior Jo’Nah Johnson, a guard who started 18 games for Texas Tech in 2019-20 before suffering an injury that knocked her out of the 2020-21 season, envisioning a two-point guard system that the Bobcats have run in the past.

Taylor and Johnson have clicked quickly, forming a connection on and off the court.

“Having two point guards with, you know, some real high basketball IQ, it's not that hard to play off of each other when you got two point guards like that,” Johnson said.

“It's just been fun from the jump,” Taylor said. “It's amazing to play with another competitor, another person that loves to win, another person that's always, you know, willing to learn. I feel like we really complement each other. I feel like we can tell each other what we need to do better or, if we're down, I feel like we're able to pick each other up in the way that we need to. So you know, it's just been fun. I'm ready to keep it rolling.”

Having two points guards means both players have been able to play off the ball more and find open space along the perimeter. Through five games of Sun Belt play, Taylor is averaging 13 points per game and hitting 42.1% of her 3-point attempts. Johnson missed the first two games of Sun Belt play, but has hit on 40% of her treys since returning.

It hasn’t impacted either player’s ability to facilitate, either. Since the start of league play, Taylor leads the Sun Belt with 7.2 assists per game. And against Georgia Southern last Thursday, Johnson matched her season-high by dropping seven dimes in the 78-74 win.

“I think what you find is that the times that it's difficult for Kennedy to facilitate, Jo'Nah's stepped in and had some big games facilitating with assists,” Antoine said. “The other thing Jo'Nah does is she can knock down the 3, which really helps us. And she can take some pressure off Kennedy as well.”

The maroon and gold backcourt will look to keep up its solid start in conference competition as it takes on in-state rival UT Arlington in back-to-back games this weekend.

It’s a matchup that Taylor, a Dallas native, always looks forward to. Taylor remembered her first time ever being at a Texas State game was when the Bobcats played the Mavericks. She’s known some of UTA’s players, like senior guard Terryn Milton and forward Katie Ferrell, since they were growing up in the Metroplex.

“It's always just been a high-energy game,” Taylor said. “Ever since I've been here, they've beat us, we've beat them. The fans are always crazy. So it's just always fun, you know, going out there and competing against people that's actually in my class.”

The Bobcats (8-9, 3-2 Sun Belt) and Mavericks (9-5, 3-2) tip off the series on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Arlington. They’ll close things out in San Marcos on Saturday inside Strahan Arena at 2 p.m.

“When UTA and Texas State play, it's not too far off from UTSA in that I think both teams really bring their best because we are the in-state schools representing the Sun Belt Conference,” Antoine said. “So my expectation is going to be the team that executes the best (wins). Because I'm sure both teams are going to give great effort, but the team that's really going to execute the best down the stretch, they'll end up winning the game.”

San Marcos Record

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