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STAFF REPORT

The Texas State men’s basketball team is still looking for its first win in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) after losing two road games last week.

With losses of 64-53 at Denver on Jan. 3 and 78-67 at New Mexico State on Jan. 5, the Bobcats are 0-4 in the WAC and 4-12 overall. The Bobcats will return to Strahan Coliseum this week with games Thursday against Louisiana Tech and Saturday against Texas-Arlington (UTA). Both games tip off at 8 p.m.

Denver led from wire to wire after scoring the game’s first six points. Vonn Jones led the Bobcats with 16 points, followed by Joel Wright with 12 and Reid Koenen with 10. Darius Richardson, Phil Hawkins and Nick Hinton made their first starts of the season for Texas State.

The Bobcats did not start 6-10 senior Matt Staff, who had struggled with only ten points in the team’s most recent two games. Staff finished the game with four points and three rebounds in 24 minutes. With their new lineup, the Bobcats produced a season low of 53 points.

Staff returned to the starting lineup against New Mexico State, but the Aggies still claimed a scoring advantage of 34-14 from the paint. New Mexico State darted to a 12-2 lead, but the Bobcats came back with a 19-3 run for a 21-15 lead. Deonte Jones hit three straight three-pointers to trigger the Texas State surge. Jones made his first five field goal attempts and finished with a career high 15 points.

New Mexico State scored first in the second half and led for the duration after establishing a 49-39 lead with 16:19 left. The Bobcats climbed back to within 68-65 on Staff’s three-pointer with 4:13 left. But the Bobcats could come no closer.

Staff rallied a bit against New Mexico State, scoring nine points with four rebounds in 27 minutes. Joel Wright led the Bobcats with 17 points. New Mexico State’s Daniel Mullings led all scorers with 22 points, followed by teammate Sim Bhullar with 20 points.

COVER: Junior forward Joel Wright. PHOTO by SHEA WENDLANDT FOR THE UNIVERSITY STAR