Turnovers Costly for the Bobcats against Arizona State

Texas State traveled to take on the Arizona State Sun Devils at Wells Fargo Arena in the first round of the Dick's Sporting Goods Tip Off in a nationally-televised game on ESPNU. However, television or not, the Bobcats were handed their first loss of the season by the Sun Devils in a dominating fashion.

The first few minutes of the game were mostly a battle between the two teams for control of the ball. John Rybak was the first leader for the Bobcats, hitting much needed three-point shots with Jonathan Sloan chiming in with a nice lay-up for an early lead. However as the first half came to a close, and point guard Uriel Segura picked up his third foul, the Bobcats' luck turned. Texas State missed all six of their next shots and to make matters worse had four turnovers in five minutes, only helping the Sun Devils take a 39 to 26 lead to end the half.

The second half didn’t look much better for the Bobcats as the Sun Devils outscored the Bobcats 13-4 to start the third quarter. Junior J.B. Conley, would not give up as he nailed a three-point basket in hopes of sparking momentum for the Bobcats. Teammate Tony Bishop seemed to answer that call with five straight points on a pair of lay ups and a free throw to pull the Bobcats within 15, the score being 53 to 38 with 11:29 left of the game.

Unfortunately for Bobcat fans, it would be as close as Texas State would get to the Sun Devils in that half, as ASU seemed to keep the shots going and showed no mercy for the well traveled Bobcats. To add to the disappointment, Jonathan Sloan, who finished with nine points, left the game in the second half with an ankle injury.

Despite the efforts of Cameron Johnson’s 14 points to lead Texas State, the staggeringly high number of 27 turnovers for the Bobcats would ultimately be the major dagger that caused the first loss of the season.

The Bobcats will look to get back on track tonight as they take on Cal State Northridge with an 8:00 pm tip off.

-Karina Medellin, KTSW Sports Staff Writer