Two Players Power Bobcats Past Red Wolves

SAN MARCOS, Texas – Kavin Gilder-Tilbury and Nijal Pearson combined to score 36 points in the Texas State men’s basketball team’s 62-58 victory over Arkansas State Monday night in Strahan Coliseum.

Gilder-Tilbury scored a game-high 21 points and Pearson added 15, 13 of which came in the second half.

The Bobcats improved to 15-9 on the season and 8-4 in the Sun Belt Conference while the Red Wolves drop to 18-8 overall and 9-4 in conference play.

Following the other results, Texas State is now half a game back of a three-way tie for second involving Georgia Southern, Georgia State and ASU, with a game in hand, and one behind first place UTA.

Neither team was able to get the ball to go into its home as the team’s started out a combined 1-for-13 from the field through the first 4:34 of the game. The lone basket was a layup from Gilder-Tilbury at the 18:12 mark.

Gilder-Tilbury knocked down a three-pointer and Pearson converted two free throws to extend the Bobcats’ advantage to 7-0. The Red Wolves weren’t able to make their first basket until there was 13:50 showing on the clock when Donte Thomas made a layup.

After a layup from Nedeljko Prijovic extended Texas State’s advantage to 11-4, the Red Wolves went on a 15-3 run over the next 4:44 to give them their biggest lead of the game.

Gilder-Tilbury snapped the scoring spurt with a layup in traffic following a needle-threading pass from Pearson.

Back-to-back layups courtesy of Maxwell Starwood put the Bobcats back in front 25-24 with 98 seconds left in the period.

Rashad Lindsey nailed his lone trey of the game at the 16-second mark to send ASU into halftime leading by two.

The Red Wolves held the lead at either four or two points for over half of the second 20 minutes.

Texas State’s defense shut down the visitors offensively for over six minutes as the team slowly chipped away and eventually took a 52-47 lead after a layup by Gilder-Tilbury.

ASU fought back and tied the game at 53 on a layup by Jahmiah Simmons. Ojai Black converted two free throw attempts with 2:36 remaining.

The next time down the court for the Bobcats, Gilder-Tilbury knocked down a dagger three-pointer from NBA range to beat the shot clock, this time calling bank, for the second straight game.

Gilder-Tilbury just missed recording a double-double with nine rebounds. The senior also blocked a career-high six shots, one shy of tying the single-game school record.

As a team, Texas State finished with nine rejections which is two shy of the program’s single-game mark.

Both Pearson and Immanuel King grabbed six rebounds apiece. Pearson tied his career-high with two blocks and dished out a team-best four assists, along with Black, while King scored six points, recorded two assists and had one rejection.

Coming off the bench, Prijovic contributed six points on 2-of-3 shooting and made both of his charity stripe attempts. The freshman also grabbed five rebounds and handed out two assists.

As a team, the Bobcats recorded 17 assists on 21 made field goals while holding ASU to five assists and forcing them into eight turnovers.

Next up for Texas State is a trip to the Peach State to take on Georgia Southern on Saturday at 4 p.m. CT.

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=4751