January 11th, 2008
Bobcat men drop Southland opener

By MICHAEL WRIGHT
Sports Reporter

NATCHITOCHES, LA – The Texas State Bobcats started Southland Conference play in good fashion early on as they jumped out to a 8-2 lead 4 minutes into the game. Despite the fast start, they could not hold off the hot shooting Demons from Northwestern State and fell 95-84 at Prather Coliseum.

Northwestern State came into the game shooting 41.5%, but finished the night making 55.7% by shooting 34-61 from the floor. The Demons were led by 6′9″ Sr. forward Trey Gilder (26 pts, 9 reb, 7 assist, 4 steals and 2 blocks) and 6′5″ Sr. guard Colby Bargeman (15 pts and 9 rebs).

The Bobcats trailed 47-38 at halftime but made a run early in the 2nd half to only be down by 7 with 16 minutes to go. Once again, Texas State could not keep up and were eventually outscored 48-46 in the 2nd half. The team’s leading scorer and rebounder, Brandon Bush (15.0 ppg, 7.3 rpg) was held in check with only 7 points and 3 rebounds on the night. Junior guard, Corey Jefferson had a great night and led the team with 18 pts on 7-9 shooting. Jefferson was a perfect 3 of 3 from 3 point land and finished with 4 steals.

Texas State now has a .500 record for the year (7-7) and is winless (0-1) in conference play, while Northwestern State has only a (6-10) record but move to (2-0) in the conference. The Bobcats will try to even up their conference record this Saturday January 12th when they travel to play the Bears from Central Arkansas (11-4, 1-0).

Attendance: 1393