- Game Stats
- Photo Gallery

STEPHENVILLE – Tarleton head coach Lonn Reisman knew his first opponent of the 2009-10 season would be tough, but the Texans shot out to an early lead which they never relinquished as the Texans defeated Dallas Baptist, 81-71, in the season opener in Wisdom Gym in Stephenville.

In front of a record season-opener crowd of 2,320 fans, the Texans jumped out to an 18-point lead with 9:59 left in the first half, and the closest the opponent would get through the rest of the game was eight points away.

DBU reached the South Central Regional semi-finals last season and return four starters off last year's 24-7 squad.

“I am really pleased with the way our guys played tonight,” Reisman said. “This was the toughest opener since I've been here. This is a team that beat Central Oklahoma last year in the regional, brought four starters back and has been picked to do good things. But we have a bunch of hard-working pieces, and they got it done tonight.”

One of the players who helped the Texans on Tuesday was point guard Corin Henry who finished with 21 points and six assists, including hitting his last six free throws at Tarleton hit 12 straight bonus shots in the last 1:39 of the game to help preserve the win.

“Corin Henry is a great team player,” Reisman said. “He is unselfish and he knew when to take the ball in and out. His leadership is outstanding.”

Both teams had 40 rebounds on Tuesday, and the head coach believes that is something the Texans will have to improve upon.

“We are thin inside right now,” Reisman said as he starts his 22^nd season at the helm of the Texans. “We had some great players give us some very good minutes tonight. We have to continue to get better as a rebounding team. We need to get in better positions, and we need to get better at our screens.

“The preparation for this game was tremendous, and Chris [Reisman] should get all the credit for that,” the head coach said. 

DBU got on the board first when Ty Gough hit a free throw just 21 seconds into the contest, but Wale Ogunoye scored the Texans' first points of the year with a tip-in at 18:39. From there, the lead switched hands three times as the Texans to a 7-6 lead with 16:20 on the clock when Henry hit a jumper. 

Tarleton then went on a 20-2 run to take a 26-8 lead with just under 10 minutes remaining remaining in the first half. Henry had two free throws while Jeremiah Wilson had a fastbreak dunk. Warren Webb converted a layup after he stole the ball on the opposite end before Chris Harrell had a layup after a Darrion Washington steal. Wilson and Donta Smith also scored in the run which was capped off by a Tyler Rushing three at 9:59. 

The lead stayed around the 15-point mark for the next four minutes, but Gough had an old-fashioned three-point play for the Patriots before Henry hit a jumper in the paint for Tarleton at 3:53. Harrell got a defensive rebound on the next series and then finished with a layup on the other end. 

Washington had a three at 3:01 to to make it 39-23 before a jumper by Armie Lewis was followed by a three by Harrell, and the Texans led by 17 with 2:28 left in the first half. DBU then scored eight of the last nine points to cut Tarleton's halftime lead to 10, 43-33.

The Patriots cut the lead to eight with 19:20 on the clock, but 22 seconds later, Hills had a three followed by a jumper by Henry, a layup by Wilson and a jumper by Smith put the Texans up by 17 (54-37) with 15:41 on the clock. 

A Hunter Martin layup at 15:18 ended a four-minute scoring drought for the Patriots. The two teams traded buckets as the Texans took a 14-point lead (59-45) as Bryant hit two of three free throws at 12:18. 

DBU then cut the lead to single digits for the first time since the 19:20 mark of the second half when Eddie Gloviak hit a free throw with 10:58 remaining in regulation. Henry ended a five-minute scoring drought for the Texans with a jumper in the paint. Again, the two teams traded baskets, but the Texans' Ogunoye returned the lead to double digits for good with a layup at 3:58. Tarleton led 67-56.

The junior then stretched the lead to 13 with a jumper 50 seconds later. Gloviak, Wilson and Adamson traded free throws to make it 71-60 with 1:31 remaining in the contest before Henry hit six straight free throws as the Patriots were fouling to stop the clock. With the Texans ahead 77-66, Wilson was fouled with 25 ticks left, and he connected on both free throws as did Washington with 10 seconds left to make it 81-66. 

Martin scored on three free throws for the Patriots to cut the lead to 12 before a putback by Gough off of Martin's fourth free throw in five seconds of game time put the visitors within 10 (81-71) with four seconds left. Tarleton inbounded the ball and time expired to give the Texans the season opening victory.

Also scoring in double figures for the Texans was Wilson who 16 points and nine rebounds. Smith also contributed nine rebounds to share the team lead. Every Texan who played more than the last 15 seconds when the last four substitutes went into the game scored.

Tarleton averaged .438 from the field (28-64), .375 from the three-point arc (6-16) and .679 from the charity stripe (19-28). The Texans outscored the Patriots 22-8 in points off turnovers and 36-15 in points off the bench.

DBU was led by Gough with 18 points and 10 rebounds as Adamson (16), Martin (13) and Bryan Baumann (11) also scored in double digits. 

The Patriots averaged .400 from the floor (22-55), .348 from the arc (8-23) and .679 from the line (19-28).

Tarleton will return to action this weekend when it hosts the sixth annual Texan Tip-Off Classic. The Texans will play Texas A&M-International at 8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 20 before hosting Southeastern Oklahoma at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 21.