STEPHENVILLE – No. 12 Tarleton State (3-0) put on a show for the home crowd at Wisdom Gym Saturday night with five first-half alley-oops and five double-figure scoring performances en route to an 88-58 win over Dallas Christian.
 
The Texans got the show started right off the bat when Mo Lee hit Davene Carter on a lob ending in a reverse slam dunk to get Tarleton on the board at 2-0 – and the Texans would not slow down.
 
After getting the crowd on its feet from the opening basket, Tarleton then turned out a 12-3 run to push its lead to 14-3 just 5:10 into the contest. After Dallas Christian pushed back and cut the lead to five at 25-20 with 8:14 left, a Michael Hardge free throw and a Deshawn Riddick 3-ball started a new 26-12 Tarleton charge for a lead of 51-32 with 37 seconds left in the opening half. DCC scored the final four of the frame to give the Texans a 51-36 lead at the break.
 
In the opening half, Tarleton State threw five alley-oop dunks including two from Lee to Carter, one from Hardge to EJ Reed, one from Hardge to Carter and one from Lee to Hardge on a two-on-one fast break at the 10:28 mark.
 
After Dallas Christian pulled within 13 points with the first bucket out of the break, TaShawn Mabry, who started his first game for the Texans Saturday, drilled a 3-pointer for the first points of an 8-0 Tarleton run to push the lead to 21 with 14:52 left in the game.
 
Tarleton maintained a lead between 17 and 30 points over the rest of the game en route to their third straight victory and the ninth 3-0 start in the last 10 years.
 
Hardge and Nosa Ebomwonyi led the team with career-high 14-point efforts while Carter and Reed each had 12 points. Teven Jones also boasted 10 points to give the Texans five players in double figures.
 
Mabry added nine points while Curtis Woods also scored a career-best six points off the bench in the final two minutes. Lee (5), Riddick (3), Jakob Damstra (2) and Damion Clemons (1) rounded out the scoring for Tarleton. Clemons led the team with eight rebounds off the bench.
 
Tarleton shot 55 percent from the floor and 60 percent from downtown on 12-20 shooting beyond the arc.
 
The Texans will return to action next weekend for the Tarleton Thanksgiving Classic when the No. 12 Texans host Pittsburg State Friday at 7 p.m. and Northwest Nazarene Saturday at 7 p.m. It will also be Black Friday weekend at Wisdom Gym, where fans at the games have a chance to win prizes at every media timeout in the two Tarleton games.