Gant Sets Career-High In Bobcats’ Win Against South Alabama

By: Mariah Medina

The Texas State men’s basketball team played its fifth game in 11 days, closing out a three-game home stretch with an 82-71 win over South Alabama.

While the Bobcats will return to the road Friday morning, Coach Danny Kaspar said the performance against South Alabama was an example of what the team needed if they desired to finish high in the conference.

“With this tremendous schedule the Sun Belt throws out at us, you know I don’t know who has worse road schedule this year—us or the Spurs,” Kaspar said.

The win, a product of outside shots and rebounds, gave Ethan Montalvo, junior guard, and Vic Bermudez, senior guard, opportunities to contribute both offensively and defensively.

Montalvo, who registered his first start as a Division I player, finished four of six from the 3-point line for 14 points overall.

“I kind of got accustomed to the sixth man role, but I’ve been a starter my whole life with other—moving up to the D-1 level, so it felt good being back in my place,” Montalvo said. “I thought I did pretty well at my first D-1 experience at being a starter, so it was a great moment in my life and I was happy it happened.”

The Bobcats’ bench combined for 12 points and 15 rebounds. Bermudez was responsible for eight of the 12 points from the bench.

“I think that’s what we need,” Montalvo said. “Someone checking in off of the bench and just keeping that spark going.”

In addition to Montalvo and Bermudez’s offensive roles, Emani Gant, junior forward, had a career-high 22 points.

“It’s really all on my teammates for trusting me to put points on the board so I’ll give it back to them if they start doubling me,” Gant said. “It just happened to work out tonight.”

While Gant calls it trust, Montalvo sees it as common sense.

“When he comes out in the first half scoring 18, you got to find him some way,” Montalvo said.

Texas State finished the game 10 of 17 from 3-point range, and the Bobcats out rebounded the opposing team 29-21 for the first time since December.

“We came out wanting to be very aggressive on offense and on defense,” Gant said. “Our game plan was to focus on the shooters, as well as number 24—Ferguson.”

After allowing South Alabama 34 points at intermission, a season-high against conference competitors, the Bobcats reasserted themselves defensively in the second half.

Texas State held junior forward Dionte Ferguson, averaging 11 points per game, to six points in 26 minutes.

“When you have a game like this, it just brings everyone up more,” Gant said.

The Bobcats lead the Sun Belt conference in many defensive categories. Their offensive game is what has allowed many teams to stay within reach. After shooting 53.4 percent from the field, maintaining their defensive prominence and allowing other players like Montalvo and Bermudez to contribute, Gant believes his team is on a positive trajectory.

“I feel like we have prolific players,” Gant said. “We’re not a prolific offense, but I feel like we can score the ball pretty well. We just all trust each other and when the shots are falling, they’re falling.”

Mariah Medina is the assistant sports editor with the University Star where this story originally published. It is reprinted here through a news partnership between the University Star and the Corridor News