Texas State wallops Arlington Baptist for 93-23 win

Even as Texas State’s lead ballooned to 70 points, the Bobcats stayed disciplined.

The maroon and gold hosted Arlington Baptist inside Strahan Arena on Monday. The Patriots had 16 players listed on the roster — eight were true freshmen, seven were COVID freshmen and one was a COVID sophomore. Only one player was listed above 6-foot.

Texas State had major advantages in skill, size and experience. The team likely could’ve coasted to an easy win. But the Bobcats took it seriously, leading to a 93-23 victory.

“Arlington Baptist was a new opponent for us, so we were really excited about playing someone who was really good in a dribble-drive offense and off the bounce,” head coach Zenarae Antoine said. “Tonight's game allowed us an opportunity to continue to get better defensively. After focusing our entire week on rebounding, we knew that was going to be a big factor in what we needed to do tonight. Offensively, we wanted to keep making those extra passes and turn down good shots for great ones.”

The hosts looked to take full advantage of any size mismatch they could find. ABU ran a 2-3 zone the majority of the game, hoping to keep Texas State out of the lane. It didn’t stop the Bobcats from posting up on either block and battering their way to the rim — they finished the night with 74 points in the paint.

It could’ve been even more. Texas State missed 21 layups in the game. But many of those misses were collected for offensive rebounds and put back up right away. The Bobcats held a 60-25 rebounding advantage and scored 27 second-chance points. Three different players, forwards Da’Nasia Hood, Gabby Standifer and Lauryn Thompson, all earned double-doubles.

“I think we did a good job of taking good shots and getting in the paint,” Standifer said. “That makes it easy to get rebounds because we know, more than likely, when the shot's going up. So we're able to like get in there and get offensive rebounds. We did a good job just staying together.”

The Patriots were held to just four points in the second half, allowing the maroon and gold to run away with it. Antoine turned to her bench to play extended minutes. Sophomore guard Sierra Dickson and forward Nicole Leff both reached career-highs in points, Dickson with 10 points and Leff with 11.

“We were able to push the ball and get transition opportunities,” said Dickson, who also had a game-high four steals. “So that's where a lot of my points came from.”

Hood played just 16 minutes and finished the night with a team-leading 21 points and 13 boards. Graduate guard Jo’Nah Johnson led the Bobcats with seven assists.

Texas State (2-3) will travel to take on Houston Baptist (3-4) on Thursday at 6 p.m.

“Once you think about just where we are in preseason play, it's really good for teams to be able to play the entire roster for a lot of different reasons,” Antoine said. “Sometimes it's for confidence, sometimes it's for understanding team flow with different alignments, sometimes it's giving others the opportunity to rest. In our case, I really believe that by allowing so many players to rotate in, we really allowed them to get like live reps against new people. And that was really going to be important long-term as far as building their own trust within themselves and then their teammates and myself as well.”