Women’s Basketball Grounds The Eagles

The Bobcats will head a few hours north to take on Georgia State in Atlanta, Ga. on Jan. 27.

STATESBORO, Ga. – The Texas State women’s basketball team (13-7, 6-3 SBC) defeated Georgia Southern (3-16, 0-8 SBC), 81-56, on Thursday afternoon inside Hanner Fieldhouse. The win gives the Bobcats its sixth conference win of the season, while the loss is the 13th in a row for Georgia Southern.

Both coaching staff wore tennis shoes on the sidelines to support Suits and Sneakers in partnership with Coaches vs. Cancer, an effort to raise awareness through the American Cancer Society.

“These young women have been great all season at bouncing from adversity,” head coach Zenarae Antoine said. “Not only did we bounce back from a rough first half, we also bounced back from a tough loss on Saturday. The way we played in the third quarter was exciting to watch. Obviously, Brooke was tremendous on the offensive end, but the balanced scoring was encouraging. When Brooke plays like she did today, we are very tough to beat.”

After allowing the Eagles to score 34 points in the first half, the defense stood stout in the third quarter. The Bobcats yielded just seven points from the home team in the third frame. Offensively, TXST exploded for 29 points and pushed the halftime lead from six points to 28 points heading into the final stanza. In the quarter, Georgia Southern shot 3-of-15 (20.0 percent) and made only 1-of-8 (12.5 percent) from behind the arc.

Ti’Aira Pitts provided the spark for the Bobcats to open the second half, scoring the first seven points of the quarter for the visiting team. She capped off her mini-run with an old fashioned three-point play. She totaled nine of her 13 points in the third quarter. Pitts grabbed four rebounds.

Sophomore guard Brooke Holle paced the Bobcats in scoring, pouring in a career-high 26 points, eclipsing the 24 points she scored in the win over UTSA on Dec. 5, 2017. She connected on 8-of-11 shots for the game, including 5-of-7 from the 3-point line and 5-of-5 from the free throw line. She also pulled down seven rebounds.

Senior guard Taeler Deer recorded her third double-double of the season. Deer notched 13 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds. The game marked the eighth time this season she has recorded at least eight dimes, and the third time she registered double-figure helpers. Her other two double-doubles came against Houston (18 points and 11 assists) and Troy (23 points and 10 assists).

Ericka May found her rhythm on the offensive end, scoring 10 points and grabbing seven rebounds. Toshua Leavitt knocked down three more 3-pointers, pushing her season total to 90 made triples. In total, the junior guard tallied 12 points in 28 minutes of action.

All five starters scored in double-figures for the first time this season. The starters outscored the starting five from the Eagles 74-35. The huge margin from the starters helped conceal the fact that the team coughed up 12 turnovers and 14 offensive rebounds. The Eagles scored 16 points off of the offensive glass, outscoring the Bobcats 16-9 in second chance points. Despite the turnovers, Georgia Southern was only able to score seven points off of the Bobcat mistakes.

Texas State was efficient shooting the basketball, converting 30-of 61 (49.2 percent) shot attempts and nailing 10-of-22 (45.5 percent) from deep. The game marked the 11th time this season that the Bobcats have made 10 or more 3-point attempts.

The Bobcats will head a few hours north to take on Georgia State in Atlanta, Ga. on Jan. 27. The contest is scheduled for an 11:00 a.m. CDT tip and will be streamed live via WatchESPN/ESPN3.

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