Texas State Men’s Basketball Swats Yellow Jackets

SAN MARCOS, Texas – Every Texas State men’s basketball player that saw the floor scored Tuesday night as the Bobcats defeated Howard Payne 87-37 in Strahan Coliseum in the final home non-conference game of the season. The 50-point victory is the largest in the Danny Kaspar era.

Texas State improved to 6-5 on the year while the Yellow Jackets drop to 5-5.

Eight straight points were scored by the Bobcats to open the game that included two layups form Maljhum McCrea.

A jumper by HPU’s Shadd Cole at the 14:17 mark pulled the visitors to within six. That was as close as they would get as Texas State went on a 12-2 run over the next 1:49 that was capped off by back-to-back buckets from Immanuel King.

In the early part of the second half, the Yellow Jackets netted eight consecutive points in a 1:21 span with Rickey Guillory hitting two three-pointers in a row with the last being at 17:26.

The Bobcats locked down defensively and held HPU to zero points over the next 10:07 as the visitors missed 13 straight shots. Texas State, meanwhile, scored 14 during the stretch with the first six coming courtesy of Nijal Pearson. Sealing the run was Maxwell Starwood with a fastbreak layup following a steal by Nathan Josephs.

Over the final 17:04, Texas State outscored the Yellow Jackets 42-7 with all but three baskets coming outside of five feet or at the free throw line. Two were three-pointers from Josephs on the left wing.

McCrea led all players with a career-high 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting. Pearson just missed a double-double with 14 points and nine rebounds while adding a four steals, a career best, and two assists.

Starwood was a perfect 6-for-6 from the field to total 12 points. The freshman also grabbed three boards, blocked three shots and was credited with two steals off the bench. King also reached double-figures with 11 points and grabbed five rebounds.

Nedeljko Prijovic finished the game with five points, eight rebounds, two assists, a block and a steal in a game-high 26 minutes of action.

Despite struggling from the field, Kavin Gilder-Tilbury handed out a career-high seven assists. He also had three steals to give him 100 for his career to place him 10th on the program’s career list, surpassing former Bobcat great Jeff Foster.

As a team, the Bobcats shot 49.7 percent (33-67) from the field but struggled on long range shots going 3-for-20 (15.0%). The team has appeared to shaken its free throw woes, converting 18-of-21 attempts for a season best 85.7 percent.

Texas State held the Yellow Jackets to just 28 percent (14-50) shooting the ball. The Bobcats also outrebounded the visitors 44-31 and forced 26 turnovers with 15 coming as a result of a steal.

Next is the final non-conference game of the season for Texas State with the squad making a trip to New Orleans to take on Tulane on Friday at 1 p.m.

Next up for Texas State is the final non-conference home game of the season on Tuesday against Howard Payne at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on Spectrum Sports.

For the latest on Texas State men’s basketball, visit the official website of Texas State athletics at www.txstatebobcats.com, follow the team on Twitter at @TxStateMBB, Instagram at @TxStateMBB and like on Facebook at /TexasStateMensBasketball.

Box Score: http://txstatebobcats.com/boxscore.aspx?path=mbball&id=4738

Kaspar Postgame: