Men’s Basketball Pulls Away Late To Down Warhawks
The Warhawks stretched their advantage back to seven with just under two and half minutes showing on the clock.
SAN MARCOS, Texas – The Texas State men’s basketball team trailed for a large portion of the game but stayed close to ULM until 13-3 run over a 6:53 span allowed the Bobcats to pull away to capture a 63-57 victory Monday night in Strahan Coliseum.
With the win, Texas State improved to 11-8 on the year and 4-3 in the Sun Belt Conference while the Warhawks fall to 6-14 overall and 0-7 in conference play.
Neither team was able to find a rhythm offensively for the first 10 minutes of the game against two stalwart defenses.
Bobby Conley hit a long pull-up jumper to give the Bobcats a 10-9 lead with 11:21 left in the half.
ULM responded with eight straight points but Texas State answered back with baskets from Ojai Black, Tyler Blount and Immanuel King to cut the deficit to 17-16 with 6:28 remaining until halftime.
The Warhawks stretched their advantage back to seven with just under two and half minutes showing on the clock.
Conley hit a jumper, and Nijal Pearson converted a layup the next time down the court to cut the ULM lead to 25-22 at halftime.
Five times over the first 10 minutes of the second stanza the game was tied. The last being at 41-41 after Kavin Gilder-Tilbury made 1-of-2 shots at the free-throw line.
Blount hit his lone triple of the game to kick-start the key 13-3 run that saw ULM go scoreless for 6:13.
Pearson capped off the scoring stretch with his second three-pointer of the game from the right corner.
Conley hit a dagger triple from the left corner with 1:44 remaining to take away any hope for the Warhawks.
Pearson led all players with 18 points on 6-of-14 shooting and connected on 4-of-5 at the charity stripe.
The freshman also grabbed eight rebounds, blocked a shot and recorded a steal. Conley contributed 14 points with a 6-for-11 shooting night and retrieved three rebounds.
Recording his second double-double of his career and season and Gilder-Tilbury with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
He also had two assists, two steals and a block. The senior moved into 13 place on the program’s career scoring list and currently has 1,120 career points.
Black dished out a game-high six assists while both Nedeljko Prijovic and King finished with two blocks apiece to lead all players. Prijovic added fourth rebounds and three assists as well.
Next up for the Bobcats is a trip to Coastal Carolina on Saturday for a 3:30 p.m. CT tipoff.
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.
