Men's Hoops Shows Progress in Season Opener

After starting out with a sloppy defensive performance in the first half, the Texas State Bobcat Men's Basketball team clamped down in the second half to defeat Howard Payne 102-67.

This game marked the start of Head Basketball coach Doug Davalos' fourth year on the bench coaching for the 'Cats. Coach Davalos has been talking about this team being one of the best defensive teams that he's had, and the Bobcats looked like that team in second half of action.

The Howard Payne Yellow Jackets came into Strahan Coliseum ready to play starting the game with some quick three-pointers to give the Jackets an 8-0 lead. The Bobcats quickly regrouped on offense by matching the Jackets throughout the rest of the first half. It wasn't until the last two minutes of the first half when the Bobcats finally started to pull away from the upset hungry Jackets. A couple of turnovers were forced on defense which led to a three-point shot from starting freshman guard, Dylan Hale, and another long range jumper by the Senior leader, John Rybak, who finished with 12 points on the night. The Bobcats went into the locker room with momentum and an 8 point lead over the Jackets.

Head Coach Doug Davalos must have said something in the locker room at halftime to spark the Bobcats because it didn't take long for the 'Cats to pull away and put the game out of reach for the Jackets. The Bobcats only allowed 5 points in the first 8 minutes of the second half and the offense was clicking from just about everybody on the team. The Bobcats forced 20 turnovers throughout the game and scored 31 points off of those turnovers. The defense took charge and never let up for the rest of the game.

The Jackets had a couple of solid performances from their go-to guys Keith Perry, who finished with a game high 24 points, and Brandon Irwin, who went 3-4 from beyond the arch and finished with 16 points. That was just about all the scoring the Jackets got and it wasn't enough to stack up against the Bobcat offense.

The Bobcats showed just how much depth they have on offense. Five players finished the night in double figures including Cameron Johnson, John Rybak, Dylan Hale, Uriel Segura and John Bowman. Jonathan Sloan, Tony Bishop and J.B. Conley came off the bench to score 9 a piece.

The progress made in just one game can often be overlooked. Although it was the first game against a lesser team, the Bobcats showed they can count on just about anyone on the team to score and if their defense is stopping people then this team could make some real noise in the Southland Conference. Texas State will be on the road for the next several weeks and will take part in the Dick's Sporting Goods Invitational that will start this weekend. The Bobcats are set to face Arizona State in the first round of the tournament; a game that some have had circled on their calendar for a while now. You can get all the live stats and action on txstatebobcats.com as well as have a chance to watch the Bobcats on national television with ESPNU covering the tournament.

-James McNeal, KTSW Sports Staff Writer