San Marcos, TX – (Contributed) – Arkansas State men’s basketball pulled away late in the second half to secure an 89-70 conference-opening victory at Texas State on Wednesday night inside Strahan Arena.
Christian Harmon led the team with 21 points on 6-for-10 (60 percent) shooting from the floor, 5-for-7 (71.4 percent) shooting from beyond the arc, and a 4-for-4 clip from the free throw line. Fredy-Salam Sylla (15), Matt Hayman (14), and Jalen Hampton (10) joined the junior guard in double figures.
Chudi Dioramma posted a team-high eight rebounds alongside nine points, while Chandler Jackson led with eight assists. As a team, A-State shot 31-for-55 (56.4 percent) from the field, 12-for-22 (54.5 percent) from three-point range, and 15-for-20 (75.0 percent) from the charity stripe.
The 89 points scored are the most by an A-State team inside Strahan Arena.
The Red Wolves held an 11-7 advantage at the 15:23 mark following back-to-back scores from Sylla. Texas State countered with a 6-0 run out of the media timeout, but three-pointers from Jaxon Ellingsworth and Royal Blue Smith buried the effort.
The Bobcats outscored A-State 7-5 over the next 4:08 before back-to-back triples from Harmon pushed A-State ahead by six points with 7:55 on the clock. Harmon and Hayman combined for the Scarlet and Black’s next nine points and made the score 37-30 with 2:26 to go.
Aly Tounkara erased two free throws for the opposition with a tip-in layup while TJ Caldwell capitalized on a trip to the charity stripe as A-State went into intermission with a 41-32 lead.
The Red Wolves surged after surrendering a layup in the first 15 seconds of the second half, opening an 11-1 run to make the score 52-35 at the 16:36 mark. Texas State scored 15 of the next 22 points and closed the margin to 10 before Harmon netted his third triple of the contest to make the score 63-50.
The opposition continued to surge with an 8-2 run as the score stood at 65-58 with 7:51 remaining. Hampton stalled momentum with a triple in the corner and posted a layup following a miss by the Bobcats to push the lead to 12 points.
After both sides exchanged free throws, Harmon and Jackson dished the ball to Dioramma for back-to-back layups. With an 81-66 lead in hand, A-State iced the game with a 7-0 run highlighted by Harmon’s fifth three-point basket of the night.
The lead fell under 20 points with 29 seconds left, but there would be no chance for a comeback as the Red Wolves improved to 25-11 in Sun Belt Conference openers.
NEXT UP
A-State completes the four-game road trip at Southern Miss on Saturday, Dec. 20, with tipoff scheduled for 3:30 p.m. inside Reed-Green Coliseum. The matchup will be broadcast on ESPN and the Red Wolves mobile app.
