Losing Streak Continues After Loss To Roadrunners

The Texas State Bobcat Men's Basketball teams' road woes continue as they fell to the UTSA Roadrunners 86-76 in the I-35 Rivalry Game. The offensive shooting struggles continued with the Cats, but the rebounds and free throws proved to be the deciding factor in this game, as Texas State suffers it's fifth straight loss.

Although lacking one of their star player's in Devin Gibson, the UTSA Roadrunners Senior Forward Travis Gabbidon, Junior Guard Omar Johnson, and Junior Forward Josh Bonney were able to pick up the slack and handily defeat the desperate Bobcats.

The Roadrunners jumped out to an early 6 point lead before the Bobcats had even scored a point. The Bobcats were able to make a quick comeback and tied the game at 10 when Senior Guard Corey Jefferson nailed a 3-pointer. From there, Texas State increased it's lead after Sophomore Center Ty Gough scored a deuce and Sophomore Guard Ryan White hit a lay-up to give the Bobcats a 14-10 lead. Senior Guard Brandon Bush gave the Texas State road fans something to cheer about when he hit a three and soon followed with a feed from Forward John Ryback for the "and 1" to give the Bobcats their largest lead of the game at 21-14.

Unfortunately the Bobcat lead would dwindle from there, and after the tie at 25-25, the Bobcats would struggle on both ends of the court, leading up to the second half. UTSA had 16 offensive rebounds in the first half alone.

The second half would not get much better for Texas State, as UTSA showcased the offensive skills of Omar Johnson and Travis Gabbidon on the Bobcats. Brandon Bush was the main offense for the Bobcats, as Cameron Johnson and Brent Benson were on the bench for much of the game because of early foul trouble. A big problem for Texas State trying to get back in the game was that no Bobcat could make back to back shots, and often UTSA would get the defensive rebound and the bucket. The Bobcats got within 8 points a couple times late in the second half, but the scoring difference proved too big of a gap to overcome. The final score was the UTSA Roadrunners by 10 points, 86-76.

The biggest discrepancy between the two teams came from the free throw line and the glass. UTSA shot 70% from the line on 37 attempts, while Texas State shot 62%, which gave the Roadrunners 18 points more at the line than the Bobcats had. UTSA had 51 rebounds, 22 offensive, to the Cat's 40 and rarely did it seem that the Roadrunners did not grab any open board that the Bobcats overlooked.

Brandon Bush led Texas State with 28 points and Texas State as a team shot 43% from the field, better than UTSA's 40% from the field, however from behind the arc Texas State shot just 18% to the Roadrunner's 40%.

The loss puts the Bobcats at 1-5 in Southland Conference play and 8-11 overall.
UTSA moves up to 3-2 in SLC play and 12-6 overall.

The Bobcats will look to rebound from this loss, snap their five game losing streak, and get their first road win of the season when they travel to Arlington to take on UTA this Saturday at 4pm.

Casey Torres- KTSW Sports Staff Writer