Close Doesn't Cut It: Bobcat Women Lose Another Heartbreaker

Texas State fell 70-59 at UTSA on Wednesday night, and a familiar refrain seemed to echo throughout the broadcast: "If it's not one thing, it's another" that is killing this team. The Bobcats got back Verinus Kalu for UTSA and lost star freshman Diamond Ford. Texas State pulls within two, gets called for a foul, or gives up a turnover, or misses key foul shots, and/or gives up a huge shot on the defensive end. Sound familiar? It should. One loss provides a sequel to another with eerily similar storylines and momentum swings, and Texas State has now made enough sequels to rival the Land Before Time franchise.

Both teams were without their top player at tipoff--Texas State losing Diamond Ford to an undisclosed hand injury against Lamar, and UTSA losing sophomore Whitney York for unknown reasons--but the Bobcats played like stars for much of the first half and opening segment of the second half.

While Texas State had another tough shooting night at the Convocation Center, the Bobcats played smothering defense throughout most of the first session and forced a number of Roadrunner turnovers. Part of this could be attributed to sophomore guard Verinus Kalu returning for the Bobcats, as Kalu is possibly the best defender on the team. There was the occasional defensive lapse via missed assignments that led to UTSA three-pointers, but for the most part Texas State played well when they had time to get their defense set. That did not always happen, however, as the 'Cats were often on their heels on defense due to 18 turnovers that led to 26 Roadrunner points.

Missed opportunities bit the Bobcats again, as has been the story of all of Texas State's close games so far this season. In the first half, UTSA jumped out to an early lead as the Bobcats came out sluggish for the umpteenth time. A few minutes later, the 'Cats rallied trade points with the 'Runners for a key stretch and got within 5. Senior guard Mallory Williams hit a wide open three to bring the Bobcats to a 33-28 deficit with 2:10 remaining, and things seemed as if Texas State was slowly gaining momentum. However, a couple of hard fouls called on the Bobcats sparked a 7-1 UTSA run to end the half.

Texas State exploded out of the gates with a 10-3 run to start the 2nd half, and cut the UTSA lead to 43-39. Sophomore guard Kelsey Krupa contributed mightily during this run, hitting 5 out of those ten points. Then, as seen entirely too many times by Bobcat followers, Texas State gave up a huge three to Kamiesha Johnson and the Roadrunners burst out to a run of their own. The 'Cats were nonetheless able to crawl back to a 2 point deficit with 8:30 left to go in the game, and hung with UTSA for another two minutes. Then, Roadrunner guard Jermini Malone hit an extremely athletic layup off of an Aimee Hilburn turnover, and UTSA exploded out on an 11-0 run. It seems at these critical junctures that the Bobcats tend to sink themselves with some sort of botched play, be it a turnover or a missed defensive assignment. This game was no different.

The ebb and flow of momentum and emotions clearly took a toll on Texas State as time wound down, as the 'Cats were unable to punch back with another run. The frustration of what has been a disaster of a season so far might have gotten to the head of usually unflappable senior Victoria Davis as well. She launched the basketball off of the floor to the ceiling when Lacey Klause was tagged on a questionable foul call, and as you could expect was called for a technical foul.

Coach Suzanne Fox stated on the postgame that every Bobcat player needs to contribute consistently, as she suggested that some players need to "step up and hit the tough...closing game shots." She stated that "(the Bobcats) have different kids that step up each game and we have some kids that are, you know, the word I would use are no-shows" and "it's hard for us to be consistent, to be a good team, when we have people that are in the rotation that don't bring it that night." That sounds about right. Victoria Davis, who scored 11 against UTSA, has been the most consistent producer for this team with 6 straight games in double figures. Kelsey Krupa has also hit double figures in the past four games, and got 9 at A&M - Corpus. The loss of Diamond Ford hurt as well, as she was putting up outstanding numbers in SLC play. However, after those three, consistency is lacking at best for this team.

Texas State drops to 4-13, 0-6 SLC with the loss and is still winless against Division 1 competition and winless on the road. The Bobcats will try to break those two streaks at Texas Hall on Saturday against UT-Arlington. UTA escaped Strahan Coliseum on January 9th with 66-60 win, so the Bobcats will obviously have revenge on their minds. Tipoff is at 4 pm, you can listen immediately following the conclusion of the 2 pm men's game on 89.9 KTSW, ktsw.net and txstatebobcats.com.

-Will Butler, KTSW Sports Director/Blog Editor