- Box Score
PORTALES, N.M. – The Texans held off a tough Eastern New Mexico team that battled for 40 minutes and Tarleton escaped Portales with a 55-52 victory.
Tarleton (12-1, 4-0) entered the game on an eight game winning streak and had defeated the Greyhounds in 15 of the last 16 meetings. The Texans headed out on the road for just the second time this season.
The match-up pitted the No. 1 defense in the nation of Tarleton and the No. 1 offense in the Lone Star Conference in Eastern New Mexico. That set things up for an epic showdown in Portales.
The Texans won the tip and did wait long to score the first basket as Brian Word got a rebound and a put-back to give Tarleton an early 2-0 lead.
Scoring was hard to come by early on for both teams, but the Texans did manage to pull out to a 9-3 lead by the first media timeout.
Tarleton did a good job of spreading the ball around and got a number of players involved early.
The Texans defense stepped up as the game reached the middle of the first half of play. Tarleton held the Greyhounds scoreless over a 6:06 stretch that put the visitors ahead 24-7 with just 6:14 left on the clock.
The tides would begin to turn though as ENMU stormed back and ended the first half on a 10-5 run.
By halftime, Tarleton held a 29-17 point lead over Eastern New Mexico.
The Texans shot 40.7 percent from the field, which was not their best, but managed to hold the Greyhounds to 21.7 percent from the floor and 0-for-9 from three-point range. On the other hand, Tarleton hit five of their nine three-point attempts.
Chris Harrell led the Texans with 11 points, including three buckets from deep, while Brian Word added five points and five boards.
Curtis Wilkinson was ENMU's leading scorer at the break with 11 of the team's 17 points.
The second half began with Tarleton enjoying a 12-point advantage. That was quickly reduced by the Greyhounds, who got off to a much better start than they did to start the game.
ENMU cut the lead down to two at 31-29 with 15:26 on the clock. This caused the Tarleton bench to have to make some line-up changes and defensive adjustments in order to stall the comeback.
The Texans fought back with some offense of their own and extended the lead back to 39-32 with 11:03 remaining in the game.
At that point, the No. 1 defense in the nation and No. 1 offense in the LSC battled back and forth for position. The Texans' stifling defense began to turn into some offensive transitions.
Tarleton pulled back ahead by double digits as the clock ticked under nine minutes. With the Texans ahead 48-36, the Greyhounds started to force things, which in turn, caused turnovers.
Men's Basketball at ENMU - 1-4-12 Gallery
Both teams struggled over the next few minutes and the score stayed at 48-38 for nearly three minutes of action. Only five minutes remained in the contest and Tarleton held on to a 10-point lead.
As the Texans hung on with their double-digit advantage, they slowed down the pace of the game and ate away at the clock.
The Greyhounds refused to give up however and kept within striking distance of the No. 9 Texans.
EMNU got back within three with 2:37 left in the game as Tarleton led 50-47 after a technical foul by the Texans gave the Greyhounds a couple of free throw attempts.
Harrell countered with a clutch three-pointer and made it a 53-47 ball game with 1:25 remaining.
A pair of free throws and a big three by ENMU's Reggie Nelson cut it back to a one-point game at 53-52 with 32 seconds left in the contest.
A missed free throw on a one-and-one attempt gave the Greyhounds the ball back, but their go-ahead shot came up short and fell into the arms of Shedrick Haynes. Another missed free throw put Tarleton in the same position with less than 10 seconds remaining.
Fortunately for the Texans, ENMU went down the court and lost the ball out of bounds before they could get a shot off, giving possession back to Tarleton with 2.5 seconds on the clock and a 53-52 lead.
The Greyhounds put Haynes back on the free throw line for a one-and-one and the senior from Florida converted a pair. ENMU was left with one last shot as 2.2 seconds remained and Tarleton held a 55-52 advantage.
A half court heave by the Greyhounds silenced the crowd and both benches, but the tying attempt bounced off the side of the rim and relieved the Texans of a letdown.
Tarleton escaped the scare with a 55-52 win over Eastern New Mexico and improved to 12-1 on the year. The Texans won their ninth straight game and their 10th in a row over the Greyhounds.
Tarleton shot 38.5 percent from the floor, but struggled from the charity stripe, going 7-for-13. The Texans held ENMU to 32.6 percent from floor and 15.8 percent from three-point range.
Chris Harrell finished the game with 21 points, 15 of which came from beyond the arc. Haynes added 12 points, but no more important than his final two. Fabian Wilson added nine rebounds and two steals to the effort.
Reggie Nelson led ENMU with 17 points and Aaron Edwards added 10 boards.
This was the first loss for the Greyhounds at home this year.
Head coach Lonn Reisman breathed a sigh of relief and talked about the game afterwards.
“I think we were very fortunate to win tonight,” said Reisman. “We started off strong, but then we started falling asleep. They hung in there and kept coming back. We are not a road team. This was only our second road contest. We need to get better because these games are only going to get tougher.”
The Texans will return to Stephenville to host West Texas A&M (10-1, 4-0) at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 7 in Wisdom Gym.
For more information regarding the 2011-12 Tarleton men's basketball campaign, check out TarletonSports.com.
