STEPHENVILLE – Tarleton's Teven Jones and Davene Carter converted a pair of perfect trips to the free throw line in the final minute to help secure a 65-59 win for the No. 8 Texans over Pittsburg State Saturday.
 
Tarleton (4-0) and Pittsburg State (1-4) battled through a nail biter and the Texans were forced to play from behind after going into halftime trailing 30-27.
 
Over the first 2:19 of the new half, Pittsburg State continued to build on its lead to extend it to 35-29 but a 3-pointer from Michael Hardge cut the Gorilla lead in half and started a 7-0 Tarleton run to put the Texans back on top 36-35.
 
After a quick lead change, EJ Reed knocked down a pair of free throws to start another Texan push and extend the lead to 43-37 with 12:02 left in the game. Nosa Ebomwoni capped off the quick Tarleton surge with a 3-ball from the right wing.
 
The Gorillas scored on their next possession and the Texan lead never got higher than five until the 6:33 mark in the second half when Reed hit another pair of free throws to extend the lead to 54-47 and start a 6-2 Texan surge, which Reed capped off with a tip in at 4:20.
 
Over the next 3:30, Pittsburg State cut the Tarleton lead to as low as four and had a chance to inch even closer with 1:08 left on the clock. The Gorilla point guard was fouled on a drive but could not convert either free throw. TaShawn Mabry grabbed the board for Tarleton and Jones and Carter combined to go 4-4 at the stripe over the next minute.
 
Pitt State tipped one in at the buzzer for their only points in the final 1:08. The Texans outscored the Gorillas 38-29 in the second half to complete the comeback.
 
Tarleton State started the game on fire, hitting three straight field goals – including two from Mo Lee – over the first 3:18 to open the game with a 6-0 lead. They would go on to extend that lead to a first-half high of 17-10 with 8:56 left in the opening frame.
 
From there, Pittsburg State went on a 17-5 run over the next 7:21 to lead 27-22 with 1:35 left in the opening half. Tarleton got a tip-in from Mabry and a 3-ball from Malcolm Hamilton before a last-second 3-point play from PSU sent the Gorillas into halftime with the lead.
 
Reed set a new career high with a team-leading 15 points off the bench on 3-4 shooting from the field and 9-10 from the charity stripe. Michael Hardge added 12 points while Lee connected for 11. Mabry scored eight in his second career start while Carter (6), Jones (5), Hamilton (5) and Ebomwonyi (3) rounded out the Tarleton scoring.
 
The Texans shot 39 percent from the floor, 42 percent from downtown and 76 percent at the charity stripe, including a combined 18-22 from Reed and Hardge.
 
Tarleton will conclude the first Tarleton State Thanksgiving Classic and Black Friday Weekend Saturday night against Northwest Nazarene at 7 p.m. in Wisdom Gym.