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STEPHENVILLE – The Tarleton Texan men's basketball team took a 21-point victory on Saturday, defeating Southwestern Oklahoma in Wisdom Gym, 73-57.
The Texans improved to 7-2 this season with the win as the Bulldogs fell to 4-8 thanks to a good night of shooting from the floor by the purple and white.
“Southwestern has a very good basketball team, and I was very worried about them,” said head coach Lonn Reisman. “We prepared very hard for this game, and our staff did a very good job of preparing for tonight.”
Tarleton had just 13 turnovers on Saturday and the head coach believes they played a solid basketball game from start to finish.
“I thought we played very good tonight, we limited our turnovers and we executed pretty well,” Reisman said. “We were almost 70 percent from the free throw line, and we had 15 offensive rebounds. We have to keep getting better. We are by no means a great basketball team, but we are continuing to get better, and I liked what I saw on the floor tonight.”
The two teams traded buckets as the Texans trailed 6-5 with 16:50 on the clock before two free throws by Devon Hills put the Texans up for good 49 seconds later at 7-6. The Texans then scored seven straight to make it 13-6 with 13:59 on the clock. In that run was a free throw by Corin Henry who shot after an administrative technical to the Bulldogs for a wrong number in the official scorebook. SWOSU then scored a bucket at 13:29 to cut the lead to five thanks to a shot from Curtis Nicklson.
That was the last bucket for 11:54 for the Bulldogs who scored their next field goal at 1:35 when Ross Moore hit a jumper in the paint. During the scoring drought the Bulldogs did have some free throws, but the Texans outscored the visitors 25-10 during that span. Tarleton took its largest (22) with 6:36 on the clock when Henry nailed a three for the Texans to make it 34-12.
SWOSU's Ross Moore and Wilson traded free throws before Charleston Flemming did the same on the opposite end. Henry returned the lead to 22 with two free throws of his own before Moore hit the jumper, which was followed by a Chancellor Jones bucket. Henry gave the half its final point on a free throw with four ticks left to put the home team ahead 39-20 at the break.
Wale Ogunoye had the first bucket of the second half followed by a Henry layup to stretch the lead to 23 with 18:01 on the clock. The Bulldogs then scored the next seven points to cut the score to 43-27 with 15:34 on the clock.
Donta Smith got a layup for the Texans before Jones did the same for the visitors, then Hills hit a three for the Texans. Zack Howe did the same on the opposite end before Darrion Washington hit back-to-back long-ranged shots for Tarleton to make it 54-32 with 12:17 on the clock. The Bulldogs cut the lead to 17 before Hills had a free throw, Jeremy Gilbert had two free throws and Zack Howe had a jumper.
Henry then connected on two free throws and then hit Effran Bryant in the right corner for a fastbreak three to push the Texan lead to 23, 62-39. Tarleton got its largest lead at 27 with 8:13 on the clock when Gilbert hit a layup out of a timeout.
The two teams traded points throughout the rest of the contest, and the Texans' lead was never less than 21 points, including at the end of the game as the Texans won 78-57.
Washington led the Texans with 14 points while Wilson, Henry and Hills each had 13 points for Tarleton. Wilson led all rebounders with 10 as he claimed his second double-double of the season.
The Texans averaged .412 from the floor (21-51), .550 from the arc (11-20) and .676 from the charity stripe (25-37). Tarleton scored 23 points off of 18 turnovers and had 17 second chance points.
SWOSU was led by Flemmings with 14 while Ross Moore and Jones each had 10. Ty Pace was the leading rebounder for the visitors with eight.
The Bulldogs averaged .348 from the field (16-46), .350 from the arc (7-20) and .621 from the line (18-29).
Tarleton will return to action on Monday, Dec. 21 at home against Cameron at 8 p.m.
