Box Score STEPHENVILLE – It was a tale of two halves for the visiting Abilene Christian Wildcats, but the Tarleton Texans managed to stay poised and were able to down the Wildcats for the eighth-consecutive time with a 64-50 victory Saturday night at Wisdom Gym in Stephevnille.
 
“I thought we came out here tonight and we showed the fans the potential of what this team can be and what it can do this season,” Tarleton head coach Lonn Reisman said following the win. “The second half was not what we were looking for and our youth showed a little bit, but overall this was our best performance of the season by far.
 
“You have to give [head] coach Golding and his group a lot of credit though,” Reisman continued. “ACU could have folded, but they didn't. They came out and played hard that second half. They kept fighting.”
 
The Texans (5-2, 1-1 LSC) held the Wildcats (4-4, 1-3 LSC) to just 8.0 percent shooting from the field and took a 38-12 lead into the locker room over the visiting team. ACU went just 2-for-25 from the field and were held without a field goal from the 15:33 mark to the 2:20 mark in the first half.
 
Tarleton's A'Darius Pegues (F, Jr, Louisville, Ky.) got the Texans going with his dunk with 18:51 left to play in the first half and he energized the Texans the entire first 20 minutes as he also collected three defensive rebounds and had a moment where he swatted two ACU field goal attempts in succession.
 
Coleman Furst (G, Jr, Denison) and De'Andre Upchurch (G, Jr, Flint, Mich.) led the home team with seven points at the break and Brian Word (G, Sr, Baltimore, Md.) followed with five points.
 
Tarleton shot a blistering 56.5 percent from the field in the first period and went 9-for-12 from the charity stripe. The Wildcats were 0-for-6 from beyond the three-point line, but did manage to go 8-for-10 from the free throw line.
 
ACU's Cornelius Cammock was ejected from the game with 2:49 left to play after being called for a flagrant-technical foul. After committing an offensive foul, the 6-5 forward proceeded to pound his foot in the stomach of Furst, who had been knocked to the floor after taking the charge.
 
Referees immediately called a technical foul on Furst after he jumped from the floor to confront Cammock, but the referees then agreed to give the ACU player a technical foul after reviewing the play at the scorer's table. Cammock was then ejected from the game for his actions.
 
The Wildcats managed to score the second half's first six points, but Tarleton finally got back on the board with Chuch Guy's (G, Jr, Fort Worth) finger roll lay-up at the 16:20 mark. ACU countered though going on a 12-10 run to pull within 10 of the Texans, down 40-30.
 
Pegues would finally stop the bleeding for the Texans has he scored on a jumper from the baseline to push Tarleotn's lead to 42-30 with 11:57 remaining in the contest.
 
The Wildcats would manage to get back to within 10 points of the Texans again at 45-35, but ACU went on nearly a four-minute dry spell in which the Texans used to go on an 8-0 run.
 
ACU would score again at the 5:00 minute mark with a lay-up from Dosh Simms, but a three-pointer from Furst with 4:13 put the game out of reach for the Texans and the home team never looked back en route to the 14-point win.
 
With the victory, the Texans have now beaten the Wildcats eight-consecutive times dating back to the 2008-09 season. ACU has just one win over a Tarleton team in the previous 25 meetings.
 
“It is always nice to get that first conference win out of the way,” said Reisman. “We did not take care of business earlier this week, but we came out tonight fighting and looking for a win. It was a great night for this team.”
 
Furst led all players with 18 points as he scored 11 points in the second half to seal the Texans' win. ACU's Eric Lawton followed in scoring as he led the Wildcats with 15 points on the evening.
 
Davene Carter (F, So, Duncanville) led the squad with seven rebounds on the night, while both Guy and Word each recorded a team-high three assists.
 
After being held to just 8.0 percent from the floor in the first half, ACU managed to shoot 53.8 percent in the second half and finished the evening at 31.4 percent from the field on the evening. Tarleton finished the night shooting 48.8 percent from the field and had a season-best 70.8 percent effort from the free throw line.
 
The Texans and Wildcats each pulled down 31 rebounds as a team and both teams committed at least 15 turnovers on the night. Tarleton finished the evening with 17 turnovers to ACU's 15.
 
The Texans will have a 10-day span without playing a game as Tarleton will not play again until Tuesday, Dec. 18. Tarleton will host Henderson State in non-conference action, with a tip-off set for 8 p.m. inside Wisdom Gym.