Bobcat Women Lose Sixth Straight

Two teams faced each other yesterday afternoon. One team is on a five game win streak and the other is on a five game losing streak. The Texas State women’s basketball team, sad to say, is the latter. Unfortunately for the Bobcats, things just got worse on Saturday. The second half saw a lot of mistakes corrected but in the end it was too little too late as the Bobcats feel 82-59.

The Lamar Lady Cardinals are the leaders in the West division of the Southland Conference and for good reason; they are stacked at every position. The game yesterday was supposed to be the game that got the women’s team out of its funk and going in the right direction. A win versus Lamar would have put the women’s team in the victory column and shown them that they are good enough to compete with the best in SLC. And for parts of the first half it actually looked like they could go step for step with the Lady Cardinals.

The Bobcats had their hands full with the “Twin Towers’’ combination of freshman Kalis Loyd and senior Darika Hill who both stand over six feet tall. Megan Homan and Aimee Hilburn did a good job of stopping Hill but the freshman Loyd was just too athletic for the Bobcats posts to contain. Loyd ending up finishing with a career high 28 points as she slashed and dashed her way to the basket. It wasn’t till the second half of the game that Homan and Hilburn were able to figure out the appropriate means to stop the bleeding. Texas State also had trouble stopping the Cardinals transition offense which lead to 12 uncontested layups for Lamar. The problems with the defense were corrected by Coach Fox at halftime but all the pieces of the puzzle that leads to a victory were not in place in time to beat Lamar. The score of the game doesn’t accurately show how close this game was and could have been if it were not for costly mistakes.

The self inflicted wounds that the Bobcats were victim to proved costly because it took them out of their rhythm, which Lamar took full advantage of. From the opening tip the Bobcats pressed the tempo and kept the game close but repeated traveling calls put the ball right back into the hands of Lamar. The bright spots for the Bobcats came from the play of Victoria Davis who was pitted up against Lamar’s all everything point guard Jenna Plumley. Davis was able to penetrate the Cardinal defense on many occasions and use her signature jumper to keep the Bobcats in the game in the first half.

It wasn’t until the second half that Lamar was able to use its size advantage to pull away with a sizable lead for a victory. Lacey Klause was also effective in her ability to draw fouls and turn simple layups into three point plays. Late in the second half she led a Bobcat charge to cut the deficit to 13 points by getting consecutive three point plays. Her effort, as well as Davis’s leadership, is what the Bobcats need as they take on UTSA on Wednesday in the I-35 Maroon vs. Orange Rivalry game. The game is set for 7 p.m. at the Convocation Center in San Antonio as the Bobcats try to get their first conference victory. You can listen live on 89.9 FM KTSW or online at ktsw.net.

-Aniekan Umobong, KTSW Sports Staff Writer