King Records First Career Double-Double Against Wildcats

“We had a couple of opportunities where we missed shots and didn’t make stops at the end,” said head coach Danny Kaspar.

ABILENE, Texas – Senior Immanuel King recorded career-highs of 15 points and 11 rebounds to post his first career double-double on Saturday evening in the Texas State men’s basketball teams 72-68 defeat to Abilene Christian in Moody Coliseum.

The loss drops the Bobcats to 5-5 on the season while the Wildcats are now 7-3. 

“I was proud of the effort the guys gave tonight. We had a couple of opportunities where we missed shots and didn’t make stops at the end,” said head coach Danny Kaspar. “I think we played much better this weekend that we did last weekend in Houston. We lost a hard fought game to a very good Abilene Christian team that has beaten Air Force, Bowling Green and Campbell on the road.”

A jumper from Tyler Blount kicked started a 10-0 run that lasted 3:30 and saw TXST take a 14-5 lead. During the stretch, Immanuel King netted six of the team’s points.

Jalone Friday hit a short jumper to cut the lead to 15-13 with 16:25 on the clock. Six straight points from Nedeljko Prijovic increased the Bobcats’ cushion to nine just over halfway through the period.

Reggie Miller knocked down a jumper from the left elbow that was sandwiched between two three-pointers courtesy of Tyler Blount to give TXST its largest advantage of the half at 32-19 with 4:32 on the clock.

A dunk by Immanuel King with 3:04 showing was the last field goal of the first 20 minutes for the Bobcats. Five of the final six points were scored by the Wildcats as TXST took a 35-27 lead into the intermission.

The Bobcats were able to take an 11-point advantage thrice in the second half with the last coming at 16:03 when Nijal Pearson converted an old-fashion three-point play. ACU followed with a 14-3 run to tie the game at 47 with the only points for TXST coming on a trey from Blount.

Eric Terry made a free throw to end the run as the Bobcats scored six of the next 11 points to go ahead 53-52. A three-pointer from Pearson with 5:48 remaining gave TXST its final lead of the contest at 57-56.

Nine of the next 10 points were tallied by the Wildcats to put them ahead 65-58 with just over three minutes left in the game. The Bobcats responded by going on a 7-2 run that was capped off with a three-point play by Nedeljko Prijovic.

Following two ACU free throws, the Serbian knocked down a three-pointer from the right wing to cut the deficit to 69-68 and 50 seconds showing on the clock. TXST were unable to find the bottom of the net again while the Wildcats sunk two shots at the charity stripe to seal the game.

Coming off the bench, Prijovic scored 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting and grabbed five rebounds. Both Tyler Blount and Pearson netted 11 points apiece with them making three and two three-pointers, respectively.

As a team, the Bobcats went 26-for-56 (46.4%) from the field and were 6-of-16 (37.5%) on three-point attempts. The team struggled at the charity stripe going 10-for-17 (58.8%). On the bright side, TXST did outrebound the its ninth opponent this season with a 36-33 advantage.

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 Instagram and Twitter at @TxStateMBB and like on Facebook at /TexasStateMensBasketball. 

Box Score: http://txstatebobcats.com/boxscore.aspx?path=&id=5228