ALLEN – Malcolm Hamilton made his presence known in his Lone Star Conference Championship Tournament debut Wednesday night as the junior transfer filled up the stat sheet to lift the No. 7 Texans into the semifinal round Friday night.
 
"With this team, anyone could start on any night. You just have to be ready when your number is called," said Hamilton. "We just wanted to go out and execute our game plan defensively and we did that. Offensively, we attacked the basket. Our mindset was to attack, be aggressive and try to score."
 
The win also marked the 14^th consecutive win this season for Tarleton State and the seventh straight win at the Allen Event Center, dating back to the 2013 postseason.
 
After the game started with a tight contest over the first four minutes, Hamilton got his number called at the 15:45 mark in the opening half and Tarleton State never looked back.
 
The junior from Kansas City came up with a steal and turned it into a breakaway layup for the first of his eight consecutive points over an 8-4 Tarleton run that extended the Texan lead to 15-9. From there, Ebomwonyi got in on the action with a triple of his own to quick start a 16-2 Tarleton surge that gave the Texans a 20-point advantage with 7:28 to play in the first half.
 
Tarleton's defense continued to smothered the Greyhound offense by keeping Eastern to just 13 total points over the first 19 minutes of the opening half – five of which came in the opening 3:41. The Texans ended the first half on a 13-4 run over the final 7:13 to go into halftime with a 44-16 lead.
 
Out of the break, Tarleton didn't let its foot off the pedal as the Texans scored the first seven points of the fresh half to push the lead to a game-high 35 points at 51-16. Tarleton cruised into the semifinals with at least a 30-point lead over the rest of the second half – pushing it to as many as 37 on a dunk and two free throws by EJ Reed and a vicious slam by Hamilton off a dish from Deshawn Riddick.
 
"We did not take this game lightly at all," said head coach Lonn Reisman. "We prepared very hard for this game because Eastern New Mexico has been playing very well lately. They played very hard and we had to prepare very hard for this game because they have a very solid team."
 
Hamilton's line consisted of 21 points on 9-13 shooting from the floor, including 1-3 from downtown, and 2-3 at the charity stripe while grabbing eight rebounds, grabbing four steals and dishing out an assist in 22 minutes off the bench.
 
Mo Lee poured in 16 points while Reed also cracked double figures with 10 points. Damion Clemons just missed a double-double effort with nine points and a career-high 12 rebounds. Davene Carter and Riddick each scored six while Michael Hardge (5), Ebomwonyi (5) and Jakob Damstra (2) rounded out the scoring.
 
Tarleton dominated the glass by winning the rebounding battle 50-22, including 39-15 on the defensive boards. The Texans also won the points in the paint 40-18 and points off the bench 38-12, led by Hamilton's 21.
 
As a team, Tarleton State shot 52 percent from the floor and 43 percent from downtown while holding the Greyhounds to 29 percent from the floor and 21 percent from deep on 19 3-point attempts.
 
Tarleton State will advance to the LSC Tournament semifinals Friday night at 8:30 p.m. and will face off with the winner of Texas A&M-Commerce and West Texas A&M.