Men’s Basketball Hangs On For Victory Over Warhawks

Next up for the Bobcats is a showdown with Sun Belt leading Louisiana on Saturday in Strahan Coliseum.

SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State men’s basketball team held on to defeat ULM 55-52 Thursday night in Strahan Coliseum to extend the its winning streak to six games.

With the victory, the Bobcats improve to 13-7 overall and 6-1 in the Sun Belt Conference while the Warhawks drop to 7-10 on the season and 1-5 in conference play. The win was also Texas State’s 300th in Strahan Coliseum.

A slow saw TXST fall behind 6-1 after the first four minutes of action. Beginning with the first three-pointer of the game from Tre’Larenz Nottingham, the teams would trade baskets for the next six minutes. Deris Duncan hit a jumper just inside the free throw line and Nijal Pearson followed with a trey to give the Bobcats their first lead of the game at 13-12 with 8:42 left in the opening half.

Following a ULM basket, another 5-0 run for TXST saw retake the lead for the rest of the half. The run began when Nottingham hit his second triple of the contest.

The third three-pointer of the opening stanza from Nottingham extended the Bobcats’ advantage to 23-19 with 29 seconds left until halftime. However, the Warhawks’ Kiir Deng recorded a putback jumper just before time expired to cut the intermission lead to two.

Coming out of halftime, Texas State was on fire offensively as the team knocked down its first 5-of-6 shots including two three-pointers courtesy of Nottingham.

Isaiah Gurley knocked down a trey from the left corner with exactly 12 minutes to play to give the Bobcats their largest advantage of the game at 44-30.

Over a span of 6:57, ULM went on an 18-6 run that cut the lead down to 50-48 with 4:16 remaining. Michael Ertel scored 13 of the Warhawks’ points during the stretch with the other five coming from Marvin Jean-Pierre.

Immanuel King netted his only basket of the game when he powered his way through traffic for a layup with just under three minutes on the clock to extend the lead to 52-48 and end 4:38 scoring drought. Alex Peacock added a layup with 76 seconds to go to make it a six-point advantage, but a three-pointer form ULM’s Sam McDaniel cut the lead in half.

The Bobcats’ defense turned up the heat and forced a shot clock violation with 14.8 seconds remaining on the clock. On the ensuing inbound play, Nottingham was fouled and issued a technical after a Warhawk player held on to his jersey after the whistle was blown and the junior swung his arm to knock the hand away. Nottingham would sink 1-of-2 at the free throw line and ULM would do the same on its technical foul charity stripe attempts.

Pearson would grab the rebound on the missed free throw and get fouled. However, the sophomore missed the frontend of a 1&1 and the Ertel grabbed the board. Pearson fouled him to send him to the line for 1&1 opportunity. Ertel would miss the front end and King knocked the ball towards the sideline to help run out the clock for the TXST victory.

Scoring a team-high 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting including 3-for-6 from long distance was Pearson. The Beaumont, Texas native also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and added three assists.

Nottingham came up short of matching his career-high with 16 points. The junior finished 5-of-7 from beyond the arc as he made his first five attempts from deep.

King set a new career-high with four assists and blocked a shot, the 54 of his career to move one away from tying Cameron Johnson (2007-11) for eighth on the program’s career list. Also dishing out multiple assists were Tyler Blount (3), Peacock (2) and Terry (2).

Next up for the Bobcats is a showdown with Sun Belt leading Louisiana on Saturday in Strahan Coliseum. The game is scheduled for a 4:30 p.m. tip.

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=5178