- Tournament Central
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CANYON - Tarleton State and Texas A&M-International will break in the NCAA Regional Tournament with a first-round matchup of the No. 3-seeded TexAnns and the No. 6-seeded Dustdevils at 12 p.m. Friday at the First United Bank Center in Canyon.
 
AT A GLANCE
Records: Tarleton State TexAnns, 21-8 (10-6 LSC); Texas A&M Internation Dustdevils, 19-8 (15-5 Heartland)
Game Coverage: Live Stats and Video will be available on the Tournament Central page at GoBuffsGo.com or by visiting the women's basketball schedule page of TarletonSports.com.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The TexAnns were deadlocked in battle against the region's top-seed West Texas A&M for the Lone Star Conference Championship at the Allen Event Center. Led by a superb effort from the bench, which outscored WT's bench 30-6, Tarleton took a lead into the fourth quarter. However, the effort came up just short as Tarleton fell 76-67 to finish as the LSC runners-up.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Tarleton and Texas A&M-International have only met twice in their respective histories - both meetings in Stephenville and both were in favor of Tarleton State. The first meeting came on the ninth game of head coach Ronnie Hearne's Tarleton tenure on Dec. 31, 2003. Hearne's TexAnns delivered his fifth career win at Tarleton with a 79-67 win. The teams met for the second time four years later on Dec. 17, 2007 and the TexAnns wasted little time in beating the Dustdevils 84-57.
 
ALL-REGION PLAYERS SQUARE OFF
This game features three all-region players. A pair of second-teamers from International (Malika Jackson and Samantha Chacon) against Tarleton's Kiara Wright, first-team honoree and the region's back-to-back Player of the Year.
 
TARLETON'S NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY
Tarleton has qualified for the national tournament six times since their inception into the NCAA in 1994, including each of the last five years. The TexAnns have won one game in the regional tournament with an 86-75 win over Southeastern Oklahoma in 2010-11. Overall in the tournament, Tarleton has a record of 1-5.
 
BREAKING THE HEARTLAND BARRIER
Friday afternoon's matchup between Tarleton and Texas A&M International will be the first time in any of Tarleton's six trips to the NCAA Tournament that the TexAnns have matches up against a Heartland Conference team. They have played Emporia State (MIAA) three times, Southeastern State (LSC), Northwest Missouri State (MIAA) and Midwestern State (LSC) in their six games.
 
SCOUTING THE DUSTDEVILS
Texas A&M-International opened the season on a five-game winning streak and earned victories in 10 of the first 12 games - with the only losses coming in double overtime on the road and overtime at home against Texas A&M-Kingsville. After a 38-point loss to Lubbock Christian, the Dustdevils rebounded to win seven of the next eight to go into the final five games of the season at 17-4. In the last five, including the first round of the Heartland Tournament, the Dustdevils are 2-4 with losses to Lubbock Christian, St. Mary's (OT) and St. Edwards twice. TAMI is led by a pair of 16.0 ppg scorers in Malika Jackson (16.5) and Samantha Chacon (16.0) while Tina Dang is supplying 10.9 points per game off the bench.
 
UP NEXT FOR THE TEXANNS
The TexAnns will continued to advance through the NCAA National Tournament as long as they continue to win. Should Tarleton advance past TAMIU, they will play the winner of (2) Colorado Mesa and (7) Midwestern State Saturday at 5 p.m.