STEPHENVILLE – Tarleton State opened the game with 15 unanswered points and never looked back as the No. 8 Texans (6-0) thumped Arlington Baptist 95-45 Tuesday night.
 
Michael Hardge got the scoring started with a fast-break layup off a turnover and Tarleton State quickly poured it on, capitalizing on three Patriot turnovers and three missed shots. EJ Reed capped off the game-opening run with a monstrous two-handed slam for the 15-0 lead after the first 4:50.
 
After the big run to open things up, Arlington Baptist scored the next six unanswered to pull within nine but another Reed dunk put the Texans up by double figures once again and started an 18-6 run to go up by 21.
 
From there, the Texans were on cruise control as Tarleton ended the half on a 15-3 run over the final 5:22 to turn a 37-17 lead into a 52-20 advantage at halftime.
 
After just the opening half, Tarleton dominated the points in the paint 28-6 and bench points 23-3.
 
The Patriots scored the first two points of the new half to pull within 30 but that would be the closest the Patriots would get as a layup from Davene Carter sparked an 11-2 run to extend the lead to 39. They would eventually stretch the advantage to at least 40 over the rest of the half until a Mercedes Lane layup pushed the lead to the 50 mark.
 
A Robert Lee 3-ball at 1:17 gave the Texans their biggest lead of the night at 52 before the Patriots scored the final bucket of the game to bring the final score to 95-45.
 
Mo Lee led the charge for Tarleton with 14 points while Carter chipped in 13 and Hardge tallied 11. Reed and TaShawn Mabry each scored nine points while Malcolm Hamilton added eight off the bench.
 
Tarleton got career-high scoring performances from Deshawn Riddick (7), Robert Lee (5) and Mercedes Lane (4) while Teven Jones (6), Nosa Ebomwonyi (3), Damion Clemons (4) and Jakob Damstra (2) rounded out the scoring.
 
The Texans shot 51 percent from the floor on 33-65 shooting and 42 percent on 5-12 from downtown while holding the Patriots to just 28 percent from the floor. Tarleton outrebounded Arlington Baptist 45-28, including 18-7 on the offensive boards.
 
Tarleton won the battle in the paint 48-10, points off turnovers 35-8 and bench points 42-11.
 
The Texans will return to action this weekend when they host Heartland Conference rival, St. Mary's, Saturday at 7 p.m. in Wisdom Gym.