Bobcats Hold Off Trojans Late For Key SBC Victory

Next up for Texas State is senior night on Monday in Strahan Coliseum against South Alabama at 7 p.m.

SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State men’s basketball team held off Troy 63-59 to get back into the win column in a key Sun Belt Conference game Saturday evening in front of a season-high crowd of 3,057 at Strahan Coliseum.

With the win, the Bobcats improve to 16-11 on the season and 9-6 in conference play while the Trojans are now 16-13 overall and 8-7 in the SBC. The victory gave Texas State its first winning regular season since the 2004-05 campaign.

Opening the game with two straight layups was Kavin Gilder-Tilbury. Troy countered with two baskets of their own to tie the game 4-4. After a jumper by Ojai Black and a layup from Marlin Davis, the Bobcats had a 12-10 advantage; the Trojans went on a 14-5 run to go in front by seven.

Down by eight with 1:21 left in the half, Bobby Conley drove the baseline to power his way for a layup. The with two seconds left off an in-bound pass, Black hit a three-pointer from the right corner to send the game to halftime with Texas State trailing 30-27.

The first five points of the second half were tallied by the Bobcats thanks to a Conley three-pointer and layup courtesy of Nedeljko Prijovic. The Trojans knocked down two three-pointers to take a 38-37 lead with 13:50 remaining on the clock. Prijovic hit a rare trey to give the Bobcats the lead for good the next time down the court.

With his second made three-pointer of the game with 9:02 to go, Gilder-Tilbury gave the Bobcats their largest lead of the game at 51-42.

Following Gilder-Tilbury’s third trey of the game, Troy scored six straight to cut the Bobcats’ advantage to 56-54. Nijal Pearson converted two free throw attempts with 19 seconds showing on the clock. However, the Trojans’ Kevin Baker hit a quick three to make it a one-point game.

Black was fouled and knocked down 1-of-2 free throws to make it 61-59 at the 15.9 mark. Baker quickly drove down the court and unleashed an off-balance trey that was off the mark. Pearson knocked the loose ball towards center court, his third big rebounding play in the last 30 seconds. The loose ball was picked up by Conley, who went the rest of the way for the game-sealing layup.

Gilder-Tilbury scored a team-high 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting and was 3-for-4 from beyond the arc.

Both Black and Conley scored 13 points apiece. Black dished out a game-high six assists, turning the ball over just once, and was credited with two steals.

Despite not having a great offensive night with only two points, Pearson came up big with ten rebounds, four coming in the final minute of play. The freshman also handed out four assists with no turnovers and had a steal.

Coming off the bench, Prijovic put together a strong performance with nine points, seven rebounds and three assists.

Jordon Varnado of the Trojans scored a game-high 24 points, 18 coming in the first half. He also grabbed nine rebounds and blocked three shots. Also reaching double-figures for Troy was Jeremy Hollimon and Wesley Person with 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Texas State shot 49.0 percent (24-49) from the field, were 8-for-16 on three-pointers and converted 7-o-11 attempts at the charity stripe. The Bobcats won the rebounding 31-29 while posting 17 assists to just eight for the Trojans. They also held the visitors to 40.4 percent (23-57) shooting and 31.6 percent (6-19) from long distance.

Next up for Texas State is senior night on Monday in Strahan Coliseum against South Alabama at 7 p.m.

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=4754