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ADA, Okla. – The Texans led by four on three occasions in the first half, but from the last three minutes of the first half through the first two minutes of the second period, host East Central outscored Tarleton 23-3 on its way to a 104-88 victory in Ada, Okla. on Saturday.
The Texans fell to 5-2 on the season as the Tigers improved to 3-3 on the season.
Tarleton turned the ball over 26 times leading to 30 ECU points.
“You can't do that on the road, and we didn't play very well tonight, but ECU played really well,” said Tarleton head coach Lonn Reisman. “We had not seen them press all year long, but that is no excuse. We should have been ready to handle it, but we were not. We have a young ball club, and tonight, our team got a taste of the road in this conference.”
The Tigers came into the game averaging 101 points per game, and the key for the Texans on Saturday was to force ECU to play a slow game, but the Tigers pressed throughout the night.
“We fell into their trap and played their game,” Reisman said. “We did not play our game, we did not run our offense. Up with three minutes left in the first half, the game was where we wanted it. After that, it got out of hand.”
The Texans shot .523 from the floor on Saturday, but they hit just two-of-16 three-point shots while the Tigers hit 16 three pointers while taking 26. ECU set a new mark for a Tarleton opponent for three-pointers scored which was previous held by Central Oklahoma (2/15/96).
Tarleton outscored ECU in the paint 62-30 and 38-12 off the bench, but the 48 points from beyond the arc proved fatal.
“I was impressed with how they shot the ball tonight from the three,” Reisman said. “We have got to get this one out of our system and get on with the season.”
Donta Smith led all scorers with 26 points after hitting 11-of-16 from the field on Saturday.
“We just kept going down low tonight, and Donta played a good game for us tonight,” Reisman said. “We got in foul trouble at the point guard position, and we had a hard time tonight."
The Texans had won five straight against the Tigers and now lead the overall series, 12-2. The only other ECU win was in Ada, Okla. (66-63) on Jan. 29, 2005.
The two teams traded baskets to start the first half before ECU took an 11-7 lead with 16:55 on the clock when Dontae Figgs had a three for the Tigers. Devon Hills had a putback for the Texans to cut the score to two before a three by ECU's Maurice Abraham made it 13-9. Donta Smith then had back-to-back layups for the Texans to cut the lead to one with 13:27 on the clock.
Again, the two teams traded buckets before Tarleton had six straight points. Jeremiah Wilson had two free throws followed by two putbacks by Chris Harrell to give the Texans a 21-17 lead. With the Texans leading 30-26 after a Smith layup, Denarius Darby had a three for the Tigers to cut the lead to one. Effran Bryant had two free throws at 3:14 before Darby had a three to tie the game at 32. The bucket was the first of a 12-0 run for the home team to give the Tigers a 32-41 lead at halftime.
Corin Henry had a layup for the Texans to start the second session, but ECU scored the next six to take a 47-34 advantage. Smith had hit the backend of a two-shot foul at 18:35 before ECU increased the advantage to 52-35. Smith and Darby traded a layup and a three to make it 55-37 Tigers.
Smith, Wilson and Wale Ogunoye had buckets for Tarleton to cut the lead to 12, 55-43, but a three by Darby, a three-point play the hard way and a jumper by Figgs made it 63-43 ECU. Tarleton then scored seven straight with Harrell hitting a layup and a three while Smith had a layup to cut the lead to 13, 63-50.
After an Andrews old-fashioned three-point play before Hills had two free throws and Ogunoye had a hook to cut the lead to 66-54. Darby then had back-to-back threes before he lobbed an inbounds pass into a teammate to make it 74-54 with 12:14 left in the contest.
Smith had an old-fashioned three-point play for the Texans to cut the lead to 17 before the junior had a putback on the return trip down the floor. Abraham then had four straight free throws to make it a 19-point advantage.
With 4:28 on the clock, the Tigers claimed their biggest lead of the contest at 25 points when Allen hit a three to make it 97-72. Tarleton then scored 11 of the next 13 points on Saturday to cut the lead to 99-82 with 2:51 on the clock. Warren Webb had a three-point play the hard way to close out the run before Andrews had a layup for the home team. Webb followed with two free throws before an Andrews three.
With 1:39 on the clock, Wilson had a putback before a Jeremy Gilbert layup with 51.3 seconds left gave the game its final total, 104-88.
Wilson had 15 points for Tarleton while Harrell finished with 13. Wilson led the Texans – who outrebounded the Tigers 46-34 – with nine rebounds while Harrell had eight and Smith six.
The Texans averaged .523 from the floor (34-65), .125 from the arc (2-16) and .621 from the charity stripe (18-29).
The Tigers were led by Darby with 25, Andrews with 24, Figgs with 22 and Abraham with 14. Andrews had nine rebounds to lead the team at home.
ECU averaged .481 from the field (37-77), .615 from the arc (16-26) and .778 from the line (14-18).
ECU was the first team since Southwestern Oklahoma defeated Tarleton 104-80 on January 6, 2007 to score 100 points against Tarleton.
Tarleton will return to action on Monday, Dec. 14 at 8 p.m. in Durant, Okla. at Southeastern Oklahoma.
