Texas State Wins Home Opener, 104-81, over Huston-Tillotson
The Southland was 3-1 Wednesday night as Texas State, Nicholls State and Central Arkansas picked up wins. The Bobcats became the third conference team to score 100 or more points in a game in a 104-81 victory over Huston-Tillotson. Nicholls opened its season with a 79-62 home victory over New Orleans. It was the first win by the Colonels in a season opener since 1999-2000. Central Arkansas posted a 74-57 victory over Bacone College in its home opener. The lone blemish on the slate Wednesday was Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, which lost 66-48 at Northwestern, which is 2-0 with both wins against Southland teams. Three league teams hit the hardwood Thursday.
Texas State 104, Huston-Tillotson 81
SAN MARCOS, Texas ? John Rybak scored a career-high 17 points and senior guards Brandon Bush and Brent Benson added 16 points each to lead the Texas State men’s basketball team to a 104-81 victory over Huston-Tillotson in front of 2,235 in Strahan Coliseum Wednesday night.
Playing in their first home game of the season and just two days after returning from Honolulu, Hawaii, Texas State was called for an administrative technical foul before the game began and Huston Tillotson’s Gabe Haskins made both free throws to give the Rams a 2-0 lead.
But, Bush hit Rybak for a three-point shot from the right wing to give the Bobcats a 3-2 lead on their first possession and they never looked back.
Both teams battled back and forth in the first two-and-one-half minutes of the game as Texas State held a 9-7 lead with 17:32 left in the opening period. But, Rybak hit another trey and Ty Gough added four points on a lay-up and two free throws to extend the Bobcat lead to 16-7.
Bush hit a jumper in the lane before Rybak hit his third three-pointer to put Texas State up 21-7 with 15:30 left in the opening period.
The Rams couldn’t get any closer than eight points the rest of the half as Texas State went on to lead 60-43 at halftime.
Ryback finished the first half with 12 points, while Bush and Gough added eight points each.
In the second half, the Bobcats extended their lead to 76-47 in the first five minutes of the second half as Corey Jefferson hit Brent Benson for a pair of three-point baskets and Bush for a slam dunk.
The Bobcats hit the century mark with 3:38 left to play when Emmanuel Bidias A’ Moute made a pair of free throws. Ryback hit his final three-pointer with 2:27 left in the game to give the Bobcats their largest lead of the night, 103-70. Robert Hartfield and Gabe Haskins made four free throws each and Haskins closed out the scoring with a three-pointer in the final second to make the final score 104-81.
The win was Texas State’s second straight victory at home after the Bobcats ended the 2007-08 season with a 97-86 victory over UT-Arlington.
In addition to Ryback, Bush and Benson combining for 49 points, Ty Gough finished with 12 points and a career-best 14 rebounds, Bidias A’ Moute added 11 points and Cameron Johnson scored 10 points for Texas State as the Bobcats improved their record to 2-1 this season.
Haskins finished with 23 points to lead Huston-Tillotson, while James Black scored 18 points and Robert Hatfield added 16 points and nine rebounds for the Rams, who fell to 1-3 this year.
Nicholls State 79, New Orleans 62
THIBODAUX, La. ? Nicholls State took a 41-26 lead to the locker room at halftime and never looked back, running to a 79-62 win over New Orleans in the season opener Wednesday night in Stopher Gym.
"I'm thrilled about what we got out of our guys," stated J.P. Piper, head coach of the Colonels. "Hopefully we'll continue to improve each time out. The toughness that we've had in practice and the intensity that we've had each day in the gym carried out onto the floor tonight and that led to this win."
Senior Ryan Bathie and freshman Fred Hunter each poured in 19 points to lead the Colonels. Hunter led Nicholls on the glass with six rebounds, including four on the offensive end.
Hunter went 8-for-15 from the floor, as the team shot 51.7 percent, connecting on 30-of-58 attempts.
Nicholls (1-0) trailed early in the opening half, falling behind by as many as eight points, before a 3-pointer from sophomore Dominic Friend put the Colonels ahead for good.
Friend and senior Justin Payne each dished out four assists on the night.
The Colonels led by double digits through much of the second half, paced by Hunter, who had 10 second-half points, and sophomore Anatoly Bose, who poured in 11 after the break. Bose tallied 13 points, thanks in part to a 5-for-7 performance from the line.
New Orleans (0-2) pulled close near the six-minute mark, using a 7-1 run to bring the score to 59-56, propelled by 22 second-half points from Darrian McKinstry. McKinstry finished with a game-high 28 points, adding five rebounds.
"There were definitely some sloppy parts for us in the game tonight," Piper noted, "but all-in-all, it was definitely a positive win. We knew McKinstry would be dangerous and, even though he got us a little more than we would have liked, I thought we did a remarkable job holding him back in the first half."
Bathie and freshman Kyle Ford each sank three treys, as Ford finished with 11 points, while Bathie knocked down three blocks in the second half.
"We're excited about our freshmen and the performances they had," Piper said. "They fit into our system really well ? sometimes I have to remind myself they are freshmen. They're ahead of the game and have a chance to be really special for us."
The victory is the Colonels second consecutive over the Privateers after claiming a 75-60 win in New Orleans last season.
Prior to Wednesday night's game, Nicholls had not won a season opener since the 1999-2000 season, when the Colonels defeated Centenary 55-52 in Stopher Gym, marking the last time Nicholls opened the season at home.
The Colonels will travel to Tulane on Saturday, facing the Green Wave for a 2 p.m. tip at Fogelman Arena.
Central Arkansas 74, Bacone College 57
CONWAY, Ark. ? Central Arkansas had three players in double figures and dominated the rebounding on both ends of the court in a 74-57 victory over Bacone College on Wednesday night at the Farris Center.
The Bears (1-0) got 19 points from junior guard Marcus Pillow, 16 from junior forward Mitch Rueter and 14 more from sophomore forward Chris Brown in his first action for Central Arkansas. The Bears outrebounded the Warriors 53-26, with senior center Brian Marks pulling down a game-high 12.
“It was definitely a positive that those three guys, Mitch, Marcus and Chris, ended up in double figures,’ said UCA head coach Rand Chappell. “If we’re going to be successful, those three are going to have to go out and put some points on the board and get some shooting confidence.
“We ended up shooting 44 percent, which after shooting 20 (percent) in the first game, you feel like you really made some. But we still need to improve there. I saw some positive things we can build on but I also saw about a million things we need to work on.”
The Warriors, a scrappy squad that was outsized at every position, held their own for most of the first half, but ended up trailing 35-21 at halftime. Bacone then came out with a 10-0 scoring run to start the second half and cut the deficit to 35-31 on a steal by Stephen Richardson and a jumper by Chad Tyler.
The Bears slowly built it back to as much as a 16-point lead over the next 10 minutes, with the help of three of Pillow's 3-pointers, and settled for the 17-point victory after freshman Chris Henson’s basket in the final seconds.
“Bacone has a nice group of athletes,” Chappell said, “and two very talented offensive guys in (Ronnie) Battle and (Chad) Tyler. They both were averaging right near 20 points a game and they ended up
hitting right at that. But we made them take a lot of shots to do it.”
Battle, a 6-foot-5 sophomore forward, led all scorers with 22 points but was only 9-of-23 from the field and 2-of-9 from 3-point range. Tyler, a 5-foot-11 sophomore guard, made 5-of-17 from the field and was 0-for-6 from beyond the arc.
UCA transfer guard Mike Pouncy, a 6-foot-1 junior from Jacksonville College, came off the bench and made 4-of-5 from the field for eight points and added five rebounds.
“Coming off his injury like he is, we may not see the best of Mike Pouncy until we get into conference season,” Chappell said of his guard who returned last week from a broken foot. “But we do need his athleticism, his strength and his ability to attack the basket.”
The Bears are at home again Saturday night when they host UNC Greensboro following the Bears football game. Game time is expected to be 7:30 p.m.
Northwestern 66, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 48
EVANSTON, Ill. ? The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men’s basketball team made a late run to pull to within 10 points with less than seven minutes to go but could not overcome 17 turnovers in falling 66-48 at Northwestern Wednesday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
The loss drops the Islander record to 1-2 on the season with both losses coming to teams out of the Big Ten. Northwestern is now 2-0 on the season with both wins against teams from the Southland Conference. The Wildcats beat Central Arkansas on Sunday.
“Offensively, we have got to get better,” said Islander head coach Perry Clark. “We turned the ball over a lot tonight giving Northwestern too many easy points. I thought we tried to rush things and didn’t play the patient type of basketball that we needed to.”
Trailing by as many as 22 in the second half, the Islanders were down 21 with 12:38 to go. After a basket by Kevin Coble, who led all players with 18 points, A&M-Corpus Christi embarked on a 14-3 run to make it a 10-point game with 6:58 left.
After a Filip Toncinic free throw, Tim Green dropped in his only 3-point basket of the game followed by a LaMarr Drake jumper with 10:42. Green made it a 53-40 contest with an old-fashioned three-point play as he was fouled on a drive to the basket. The senior from Chicago added his eighth point of the run to make it a 10-point game.
“In the second half, we played better and made a run like we thought we would,” Clark said. “We had a chance to pull closer. We just need someone to step up and make the big shot.”
They could get no closer scoring just three points the rest of the way with all three points coming from the foul line.
Much like the Illinois game Sunday, the Islanders enjoyed an early five-point lead as Toncinic began the scoring with a pair of free throws as he made his first career start. Kevin Palmer, who finished with 10 points in the first half and led the team with a career-high 14, followed with a 3-point basket at the 17:47 mark.
The Islanders led by four, 7-3, after a Demond Watt dunk, but cooled off after that. A&M-Corpus Christi would manage four points the next eight-plus minutes. Watt hit a pair of free throws before a drive by Green at the 11:37 mark made it a 17-11.
During the span, the ?Cats outscored the Islanders 22-4 and led 25-11 with less than nine minutes remaining in the half. Craig Moore, who led Northwestern with 11 first half points and had 14 overall, and All-Big Ten guard Coble each had six in the run. The Wildcats pushed their lead to 19 on basket by Michael Thompson with 5:46 to go in the half.
A&M-Corpus Christi went on a 7-0 run to pull within 11 with 2:13 left in the half. After a fast-break basket by Kevin Perkins, Palmer hit his second three-point basket of the half. Following 1-of-2 free throws by Toncinic, the Islanders had a chance to pull within 10, but Horace Bond was called for a travel.
John Shurna and the ?Cats answered with a 7-0 run to close the half. Shurna had five points in the half-ending spurt to give NU a 39-21 lead at the intermission.
The ?Cats turned the 17 Islander turnovers into 26 points, while the Islanders had nine off nine Northwestern miscues.
Palmer and Green led the Islanders with 14 and 11 points, respectively. Watt and Toncinic each grabbed six boards, while Northwestern’s Shurna had nine to go with his 17 points.
The Islanders stay on the road as they travel to Tulsa for a Sunday game at 3 p.m.