Lady Tigers Shock Bobcats as Texas State Drops Fourth Straight Road Game

Spoiler Alert: Texas State falls to 2-5 on the year.

Texas Southern University hosted Texas State on Saturday and the ‘Cats fell just short in a story of two halves. Both squads were on a 3-game-losing streak, so both of them were looking to right the ship. TSU was 0-2 against Southland Conference teams in their 3-game skid, losing to the likes of Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Nicholls. Texas State was coming off a 4-point loss to Texas Tech on Wednesday where they went on a 13-0 run late in the game, only to fall short. The eventual result: A 64-57 Bobcat loss that likely shocked Bobcat and Lady Tiger players and fans alike.

Now on to the game…

It was the story of two halves. The biggest stat line of Saturday’s game was Texas State’s inability to shoot the ball in the second half as well as they did in the first. The Bobcats moved the ball well all game and consequently got good looks. However, when you cannot knock those open shots down it doesn’t really matter. The Bobcats shot 36% from the field in the first half and then struggled by shooting 29% in the second. On the other hand, the Tigers (TSU) shot a reasonable 39% in the first half then erupted to a whopping 48% in the second. This was a major surprise to everyone in the gym, as TSU is not known as a proficient shooting team. Nonetheless, they stuck around long enough to hold off Texas State and snatch the win.

A broadcast that featured a series of “ooohh’s” and “aahhh’s” and “wow’s” from the broadcasting table, ended around 6:30 and the crowd definitely wanted more. Both teams fought to the final whistle and the game was close the whole way. Neither team let up so it was easy to look back and nit-pick on certain areas of the game.

Head coach Suzanne Fox said, after the game, that Texas State's free-throw shooting and turnovers are what killed them in the end. The ‘Cats went 19-28 from the line and piled up a total of 19 turnovers. The turnover mark was a definite upgrade from the 27 they gave away against Texas Tech, but Fox was still not pleased. Although it may seem like the coach is being a little tough on her club, she really isn't. She has a lot of confidence in this team and believes that they could, should, and knowing Coach Fox, probably will do better.

Kelsey Krupa struggled from the field tonight as she shot an uncharacteristic 2-11 and 0-4 from deep. Senior forward Aimee Hilburn had another solid performance as she had 13 points and 4 assists on 4-8 shooting from the field. Freshman guard, and Houston native, Diamond Ford had her second straight double-digit game as she had a team high 14 points on 5-9 shooting in only 15 minutes of play. Diamond’s solid performance was definitely a sight to see as she stepped up in big way scoring 5 of the team’s last 8 points in the final three minutes of play. Her minutes here early in this preseason will be very valuable to the team as she gains experience and confidence for Southland Conference play later in the season.

Texas State will be back in action on Dec. 8 in San Marcos at noon against Huston-Tillotson. You can catch all the action on KTSW 89.9 and ktsw.net.

-Robert Fisher, KTSW Sports Staff Writer