NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Reserve Eric Terry scored a career-high 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting and ninth-seeded Texas State ended a nine-game losing streak on Wednesday with a 73-66 win over eighth-seeded Coastal Carolina in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
Nijal Pearson led the Bobcats (15-17), who play top-seeded Louisiana on Friday, with 20 points. Tyler Blount added 14 points and Tre Nottingham 10.
Blount hit a 3-pointer and Pearson had a 3-point play in a late 8-0 run that helped Texas State take a 32-28 lead at the half. They followed that with a 16-2 run early in the second half with Nottingham's 3-pointer making it 48-32.
The lead was 54-40 after Terry's basket with 10:16 to play but Texas State didn't make another basket until Terry scored at the 2:23 mark. The Bobcats missed six shots and had three turnovers but they were also on their way to making 18 of 21 free throws in the second half, with two of the misses coming in the final minute.
Overall, Texas State went 22 of 26 from the line to 11 of 14 for Coastal Carolina.
Jaylen Shawl led the Chanticleers (14-18) with 27 points and Zac Cuthbertson had 19.
Texas State Notes
• Texas State had lost nine straight, the most under head coach Danny Kaspar, prior to today’s 73-66 win.
• Texas State now leads the all-time series over Coastal Carolina 4-2.
• Nigel Pearson led the Bobcats in scoring for the 19th time this season, with 20 points.
• The Bobcats shot better than 80 percent from the FT (22-26, 84.6 percent) for the first time since shooting 85 percent at Pacific on 11/25/17.
• The Bobcats only shot 38.6 percent from the field and had previously been winless (0-8) in the 2017-18 season when shooting below 40 percent.
Coastal Carolina Notes
• Jaylen Shaw led all scorers with a season-high 27. The Chanticleers are 6-8 when Shaw leads the team in scoring.
• The Chanticleers didn’t make their first three of the second half until the 5:56 mark. They ended the day shooting 31.8 percent from behind the arc.
• The Chanticleers are now 10-13 when holding their opponents to below 50 percent from the field.
Quotes
Texas State Head Coach Danny Kaspar
Opening Statement:
“It would be ignorant of me to say this is a most-welcomed victory, as we’ve had a nine game losing streak, the longest in my coaching career, and certainly it is a very painful thing in that our players have continued to fight through these losses. Six of those losses have been, I want to say, by four points or less, two in overtime, and even two of them I would think Coach (Bob) Marlin (UL) and Coach (Keith) Richard (ULM) would tell you that we played them very competitively at their places during that streak. Only Georgia State really put it on us one game, so these players did not quit on me. They’ve continued to play hard, come to practice and compete. One of things that really stood out about this game was that we shot the free throws very well. We’ve lost some games because of free throw shooting so I was very happy to see us shoot 22-of-26, most of the time we are shooting in the mid to low 60’s and that has been a problem for us. Otherwise, I don’t see much difference in the stats sheet. We did out-rebound them by four, same number of turnovers, but that free throw shooting really stood out for me when I looked at the stats sheets and I somewhat was recognizing that throughout the game. I am very happy for our players, a great group of young men, fun to work with and really good kids, so I’m really excited and happy about this victory.”
On what the message was at halftime to motivate his team to come out in the second half with a big run:
“There have been some games in these losses that we have sustained over the month of February where we have either had decent leads get cut down to one or two points in the last two to three minutes of half, or we might come out with a four or five point lead and then all of the sudden it is evaporated in the first three to four minutes of the second half. We have talked about that quite a bit, not just before this game but in other games. And again, that was the emphasis, we went in with a four point lead, I said that is really not much to talk about, to hang your hat on, we really have to come out and so to speak, punch them in the face and move on and try to separate ourselves. Fortunately for us, they did. They hit some big shots and the ball bounced our way a little bit so it was a good run for us to start that second half. ”
On what he saw from some of the other guys around Nijal Pearson, who went 7-of-8 from the floor:
“The big gun for us tonight, in terms of increasing his production, was Eric Terry. Eric Terry is a young man, I am trying to get him - he just is such a meek person and I am trying to get him to realize, look, continue to be that soft spoken, very nice, altar boy that are you are off the court, but on the court understand that if you want to win game you have to get more physical and tougher in there and so forth. He really hit some big shots for us and he is the difference in the game. Obviously, Nijal (Pearson) scoring 20 is not a surprise, Tyler (Blount) when he is hitting shots like he is today, 4-of-5, he’s had some big games for us, and then of course Tre (Nottingham) is our other double digit scorer (10) really came on there at the end with the free throws that he was able to knock down at the end. One of the things I will say is I have always told these guys, when we have two guys scoring well we have a decent chance to win, if we have three guys scoring well and we play pretty good ‘D’, we will win. Our defense was okay, not great, but pretty good. We held them to 40 percent. Unfortunately for us, we didn’t shoot the ball very well. I’m astounded that we only shot 37 percent and won the game, but again I get to those free throws and maybe the offensive rebounds we had and that is the difference in the game. ”
On how you keep your team motivated to be their best and not focused on who the next opponent it:
“We have to play very tough. We have to play smart. There was a time there where we shot three threes and they cut the lead to four. They were quick threes. That was not in the game plan, not at that stage of the game, and so Nijal (Pearson) shot one of them and here is my star player, I let him have it. I said you can’t get caught up in the moment, you have to play smart. We played a lot of people today. I want to say seven guys got quality minutes and another couple got nine and six. We have a day off to rest. We’re playing a very good basketball team in Louisiana, but they (Texas State) really did compete with Louisiana at Louisiana the second go-around, so we’ll just have to come out and compete and leave everything on the table. I have been telling them that I don’t think we are as talented as some other team, but out fight and out heart can be bigger than those teams. That is what I am banking on, that our hearts are bigger than anybody we play.”
Coastal Carolina Head Coach Cliff Ellis
Opening Statement:
“Both teams went at each other and both teams played extremely hard, there is no doubt about it. We didn’t leave anything on the floor. I thought the difference was that they made free throws. They got to the line a lot and they didn’t miss. And they hit some critical shots. And Tyler Blount, he hit some amazing shots. We’ve played them two years in a row and it’s always a grind game. And I thought that maybe if some of our shots go in, it’s different. But Blount, you’ve got to give him credit. He hit some threes with a hand in his face and hit them with the shot clock going down. That and free throws was truly the difference. Their effort was great, our effort was great. But they got to the line a lot and they made free throws, and Blount hit some big threes. The rest was pretty much a draw. Give them credit, but I am not disappointed in our team’s effort – they did everything they could to win this game. They wanted to win and they fought hard, but you’ve got to give Texas State credit for what they did.”
What did you tell your team in the locker room at the half:
“We were down four and had the ball, so we were one possession down. Our defense was good and I thought offensively we didn’t get into a flow in the first half. With our basketball team, when they get on the other end of the court, they are kind of on their own with regards to what they are trying to do. I thought that some of the things we were running, we weren’t in sync. In the second half, when they are closer, I can talk to them with regards to those things. In the end, we didn’t make the shots, enough shots, that Texas State made. We told them not to come off of Blount, and in the four times we came off of him, he hit four of them.”