Box Score STEPHENVILLE – Tarleton's Brian Word (G, Sr, Baltimore, Md.) scored a career-high 17 points and drained a three-pointer with less than three and a half minutes to put the game away and guide the Texans to its first win of the season, defeating Texas-Permian Basin 60-46 in the second game of the Taco Bell Texan Tip-off Classic at Wisdom Gym in Stephenville on Friday night.
 
Unlike in Monday's opener for Taleton, the Texans closed out tonight's game very well shooting over 50 percent from the field and holding the Falcons to less than 40 percent in the game's final 20 minutes.
 
Turnovers and rebounds were the difference between the two teams in the first 20 minutes of play. Tarleton turned the ball over just once and forced UTPB to 10 turnovers, which they then turned into 10 points.
 
Meanwhile, the Falcons out-rebounded the Texans in the first half 21-6 with nine of their 21 boards coming on the offensive side of the court. Of UTPB's 24 points at the break, 11 of them came via second-chance points.
 
Still, despite both team's inconsistencies in the first half the Texans and Falcons managed to shoot over 40 percent en route to a 24-24 tie at the break. The Falcons shot 42.9 percent from the field with a 2-for-6 effort from the three-point line. Tarleton shot 43.5 percent from the floor, but were a combined 0-for-8 from beyond the arc.
 
The Texans led by as many as six points with 14:57 left to play in the first half when Coleman Furst (G, Jr, Denison) picked off a UTPB defender and then later when running the offense tossed up a pass to Davene Carter (F, So, Duncanville) who promptly dunked it home for the alley-oop which gave Tarleton an 11-5 advantage.
 
The Falcons proceeded to go on a 5-0 run and cut the lead to 11-10 with 13:24 left to play. Tarleton again went up by six points on a jumper from Word, which later made it 16-10 in favor of the home team.
 
The Texans would sustain at least a two-point advantage over the next four minutes until UTPB tied the game at 18-18 with 8:28 left to play. The Falcons would take its first lead 20-18 at the 7:09 mark, but Tarleton out-scored the visiting squad 6-4 over the final seven minutes to notch the game at 24-24 heading into the locker room.
 
The Texans built a five-point lead with 16:06 remaining on a three-pointer from Furst, making it a 33-28 game. Another jumper from Furst with 13:50 put the Texans up 35-30, but De'Andre Upchurch (G, Jr, Flint, Mich.) would later extend Tarleton's lead to eight points on a three-pointer with 11:22 left to play. His basket made it a 40-32 game and Tarleotn never looked back.
 
Upchurch's jumper at the 9:34 mark began a 9-0 run for the Texans, pushing its lead to 15 points, up 49-34 with 7:00 left to play. UTPB finally got back onto the board with 6:04 left to play and eventually made it an eight-point game with 3:55 left to play, but a 4-0 run from the Texans that included Word's three-pointer put the game out of reach at 55-43.
 
After being out-rebounded by 15 boards in the first half, Tarleton came back to out-rebound the Falcons 21-10 in the second half.
 
Word went 6-for-9 from the field and was 4-for-7 at the charity stripe for the Texans. The senior added four rebounds and had a pair of assists as well.
 
Furst, who scored a career-high 15 points in Monday's opener, tied that mark with another 15 points against the Falcons. Furst also went 6-for-9 from the field and was 1-for-3 from beyond the arc. He led all players with three steals on the night.
 
Jon Cathey-Macklin (F, Jr, Milwaukee, Wis.) led the team with six rebounds on the night and Damion Clemons (F, So, Dallas) grabbed five boards as well.
 
The Texans scored 17 points off of 19 Falcon turnovers and allowed UTPB to just two points in turning the ball over just eight times in the game. The Falcons scored 11 second-chance points in the first half, but were held scoreless in that category in the second half.
 
The Texans return to action Saturday evening in the final game of the Taco Bell Texan Tip-off Classic. Tarleton will hosts East Central in the final game. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. in Stephenville.