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STEPHENVILLE – Despite outscoring the No. 7 Midwestern State Mustangs 35-19 in the second half of Wednesday's Lone Star Conference South Division contest, the Tarleton Texans lost 66-49 thanks to a poor shooting performance in the first period that put Tarleton down 47-14 at the half.
Tarleton fell to 17-4 overall and is now tied with the 20-1 Mustangs atop the LSC South Division standings with a 5-1 record.
“MSU is a very good team,” said head coach Lonn Reisman. “Our kids were very tight to start the game and we just did not play like ourselves at all; we were not in sync and they were hotter than a pistol.”
Tarleton averaged just 20 percent from the floor in the first half while MSU was eight-of-12 from the arc and hit 66.7 percent from the floor. The Texans then shot 38.5 percent from the floor in the second half while holding the Mustangs to 27.3 percent from the field in the period.
“I really liked the way our team fought back in the second half,” Reisman said. “We outscored them and held them to a much lower percentage from the floor. We just got in such a hole early and we couldn't get out of it.”
MSU led by 35 at one point in the second half, but Tarleton played a much better period.
“We want to go up there and play better,” Reisman said. “We will look at film and try to get better on Saturday. We played a very poor first half, but I was very pleased the way we played the second half. It was just one of those nights that we had a lot of good looks and we just couldn't get the ball to in. We give MSU credit because they are a very good team. We will try to compete Saturday night and get back after it.”
The Mustangs opened the game with a three from Anthony Moore before Devon Hills got a layup for Tarleton. MSU then scored a three by Chris Hagan to make it 6-2 with 18:07 on the clock. A free throw by Wale Ogunoye cut the lead to three before a jumper by Rashad Austin and another three by Hagan made it 11-3 with 14:49 remaining in the half.
Effran Bryant had a jumper for the home team to cut the lead to six before the Mustangs stretch the lead to 11 (16-5) with 12:30 on the clock. MSU then stretched the lead to 17 with 9:22 on the clock when Michael Godwin made it 23-6. Two free throws by Austin 46 seconds later put the visitors on top by 19 before Jeremiah Wilson had a free throw. Chris Williams and Hagan each had a jumper to make it a 22-point advantage.
Bryant had a three for the Texans at 7:28 to end a seven-minute drought for the Texans without a bucket. However, on the opposite end, Moore hit a three himself. Green and Hagan had buckets to push the lead to 27 (37-10) with 6:13 remaining in the period. Hills connected on a fastbreak layup after Corin Henry got a steal and the assist.
Austin and Wilson traded jumpers before back-to-back threes by Melvin Clark made it a 31-point lead for the visitors. Godwin then hit a jumper at the buzzer to give the Mustangs a 47-14 lead at the break.
Tarleton averaged just 20 percent from the floor in the first half while MSU shot 66.7 percent from the field. Tarleton also was one-of-eight from the three-point arc while the Mustangs hit eight-of-12 from the arc. The Mustangs have turned eight Texan turnovers into 17 fastbreak points in the first half.
Hills opened the second half with two free throws 15 seconds into the period before Moore hit a three for the Mustangs, their ninth of the contest. Hills got a dunk before Jason Ebie had a bonus shot. Henry then had an old-fashioned three-point play to cut the lead to 30 before Ausitn and Green had back-to-back layups to make it 55-21. A free throw by Hagan was followed by a three from Bryant and a layup by Wale Ogunoye.
Henry then added two free throws from Tarleton to cut the lead to 28 before Green and Hills traded buckets. Hills then got a layup for Tarleton to make it 58-30 with 9:46 on the clock. The two teams traded points, MSU led 61-31 with 8:49 on the clock. Chris Harrell had a three for the Texans to start a 13-0 run by Tarleton. Scoring in the run was Hills, Oguonye, Henry and Harrell. Tarleton cut the score to 6-144 with 5:41 on the clock.
The Mustangs' Ebie then hit a three at 5:10 to end the run and return the lead to 20. Hagan had a layup before a Harrell free throw. Hays cut the lead to 19 before the final bucket of the game came from Bryant with 19 seconds left to pull the Texans to a 17-point deficit. MSU won 66-49.
Tarleton was led by Hills with 15 points and Bryant with 10. Tarleton, who was outrebounded 39-35, was led by Wilson with nine boards.
Tarleton averaged .294 from the floor (15-51), .136 from the three-point arc (3-22) and .552 from the charity stripe (16-29).
The Mustangs were led by Austin with 16 points and Hagan with 14. Moore led the team with eight rebounds.
MSU averaged .490 from the floor (24-49), .476 from the arc (10-21) and .533 from the line (8-15).
The visitors outscored Tarleton 29-8 from the bench and 19-13 in fastbreak points while Tarleton outscored MSU 24-22 in the paint and 14-11 off turnovers.
The two teams will meet again on Saturday, Feb. 6 to complete what has been dubbed “Rivalry Week” in the LSC. Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m. in Wichita Falls.
