Box Score - Photo Gallery 1
- Photo Gallery 2
- Postgame Press Conference
- LSC Recap
 
ALLEN, Texas – The Tarleton Texans will make its fourth consecutive appearance in the Lone Star Conference Championship Final, following its 66-48 victory over West Texas A&M in semifinal action at Allen Event Center in Allen on Friday.
 
The Texans (19-9) will face the winner of Midwestern State/Incarnate Word, which is set to tip-off at 8:30 p.m. tonight.
 
Tarleton's Chuck Guy scored a game-high 17 points for the Texans and Jon Cathey-Macklin again was just shy of a double-double, scoring 10 points and pulling down a game-high nine rebounds. Brian Word led the Texan defense with three steals in the game.
 
The Buffs (18-10) were led by Darnell Jackson's 13 points and the Tarleton defense limited Donald Sims to a career-low two points on the night.
 
Tarleton jumped out to a 9-4 lead on a jumper from Jon Cathey-Macklin and later pushed its lead to 19-9 with 10:00 to play on a layup from Chuck Guy. WT's Darnell Jackson briefly stopped the run though with this three-pointer at the other end of the court and the Texans lead was 19-12 at the 9:46 mark.
 
A dunk from Cathey-Macklin and then a jumper from Coleman gave Tarleton its largest lead of the first half, up 23-12, but a 10-1 run from the Buffs pulled WT back to within two points down 24-22 with 3:31 remaining in the half.
 
The Texans closed out the first half though on a 7-0 run and took a 31-22 into the break.
 
Tarleton shot 45.2 percent from the field and limited the Buffs to just 39.1 percent shooting. The Texans held on to the ball well in the first half, giving up just two turnovers while forcing WT to eight turnovers. The Texans turned WT's miscues into 11 points, while the Buffs were unable to get any points off Tarleton's pair of turnovers.
 
The Texans started where they left off from in the first half and began the period with a 9-3 run. Damion Clemons poured in a layup with a little over 17 minutes left to play to make it a 40-25 game in favor of the Texans.
 
Guy scored Tarleton's next seven points and the Texans led 47-31 before Kennon Washington scored for the Buffs and Tez Dumars hit a three-pointer to make it a 47-36 game. Brian Word got the Texans back on the board at the other end of the floor though and Tarleton led 49-36 with a little over 10 minutes left to play.
 
Word's bucket actually sparked a 10-2 run for the Texans and Tarleton pushed its lead to 57-38. Guy poured in another basket a few minutes later and Tarleton led 59040 with less than six minutes to play.
 
WT's Barry Johnson hit a runner in the lane with 7:10 to play and the Texan defense then held WT without a field goal for the next four minutes. Washington snapped the dry spell with his layup at the 3:02 mark, but Tarleton's lead at that time was 61-42.
 
De'Andre Upchurch hit a three-pointer late for the Texans as they closed out the game and preserved the 18-point win over the Buffs.
 
Tarleton moved to 4-2 overall against the Buffs in the LSC tournament and have now won three straight games over WT in the LSC Championship. Tarleton also moved to 2-1 over the Buffs this season after just losing by three points to WT last weekend in Canyon.
 
Tarleton will face the Mustangs or the Cardinals in the championship final, which is set to tip-off at 8:30 p.m. Saturday night in Allen.