Feb. 23, 2005

Texas State will look to wrap up a three-game home stand Wednesday with another victory and further secure its seeding at next month's Southland Conference Tournament. But to do that, the Bobcats will have to get by a McNeese State team which is one of the hottest teams in the league.

Tip-off is slated for 7:30 p.m. in Strahan Coliseum and will follow the women's game between the two schools which begins at 5:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast by KTSW-FM 89.9 and will also be available on College Sports Pass through Texas State's website, www.txstatebobcats.com.

While Texas State (13-11, 7-6 in the SLC) is on a two-game winning streak which coincides with its current home stand, McNeese State (10-13, 5-7) has won its last three including road victories at Southeastern Louisiana and Sam Houston State.

For McNeese, the winning streak started with a 71-69 upset of conference leader SLU back on Feb. 12. The win snapped a seven-game losing streak and now the Cowboys are back in the hunt for a berth into the league tournament. They are currently tied for eighth in the conference.

McNeese State senior guard Edward Garriet is averaging 11.7 points to lead the Cowboys but was held to eight points in last week's 73-70 road win at Sam Houston State. Three other McNeese players would score in double figures at Sam Houston including Ryan Price and John Ford, who came off the bench to score 13 and 12 points, respectively. Ford also had six assists and five rebounds in the win.

Texas State has won each of its last three home games either in the final minute of regulation or in overtime.

After posting a 54-52 win against Louisiana-Monroe last Thursday, the Bobcats turned around and beat Lamar 83-75 in overtime Saturday.

Zach Allison scored seven of his 16 points and had half of his rebounds in the extra period en route to a 16-point, 10-rebound double-double. For the year he is averaging 8.8 points and 5.5 rebounds.

Senior forward Anthony Dill continues to make a case for all-conference honors despite back problems that sidelined him for the Texas-San Antonio game earlier this month. Against Lamar, the Richardson native scored 16 points on 6-for-10 shooting and had six rebounds. For the year, Dill is averaging 15.3 points per game (fifth in the Southland Conference) and 7.5 rebounds (tied for second in the SLC) while shooting 54.5 percent from the field (fifth in the SLC).

Senior guard Josh Naylor is averaging 12.7 points and leads the `Cats with 60 assists.

The Bobcats opened SLC play this year with a 69-57 loss to McNeese State in Lake Charles.

Following Thursday's game, Texas State will have a rare weekend off before returning to action with two games in three days next week. The Bobcats travel to Texas-Arlington next Wednesday before playing host to Texas-San Antonio in the regular-season finale next Friday.