STEPHENVILLE – The Tarleton State Texans ended the 2014 calendar year the same way they started it – with a blowout win of South Dakota Mines.
 
The Hardrockers were the first visitors of the year when South Dakota Mines came to Stephenville back on January 4 and the last visitors of 2014 following Tarleton's 74-51 win in Wisdom Gym Tuesday night led by a career-high 23 points from Malcolm Hamilton.
 
Tarleton State improves to 11-0 on the year for the second straight season, 6-0 for the month of December and are now 39-3 since the beginning of last season.
 
Davene Carter opened the game with his 17^th dunk of the season off an alley-oop pass from Michael Hardge.
 
After the Hardrockers answered the lob with a 3-ball on the other end, Nosa Ebomwonyi connected for his first points of the game on a 3-pointer of his own to put the Texans back on top 5-3. The long shot from the true freshman started an 11-0 Tarleton run for a 13-3 lead early on.
 
South Dakota Mines pulled within seven with three unanswered points before a Hamilton layup was the first points of a 20-8 Tarleton run to head into the half with a 33-14 advantage.
 
Out of the break, TaShawn Mabry continued Tarleton's torrid pace with a 3-pointer just seven seconds into the fresh half to push the lead to 22. The Hardrockers cut the lead down to 12 right after before Hamilton sealed the run with a dunk to shift the momentum back to Tarleton.
 
Hamilton's dunk started a 15-9 Texan surge that pushed the lead back to 18 with 10:35 left in the game.
 
South Dakota Mines would make their final push, however, with eight straight points over the next three minutes to pull within 10 at 51-41 with 7:09 left. Once again, however, it was Hamilton that ended the run and started an 18-5 Texan run to put the game out of reach at 69-46 with 1:51 left in the game.
 
The nation's No. 2 ranked scoring defense held the Hardrockers to just 33 percent shooting from the floor, including 24 percent in the first half, while the Texans shot 48 percent from the floor on the offensive end.
 
Hamilton's career-high 23 points becomes the fourth Texan on the current roster with at least one career 20-point game. The junior was 9-14 from the field, 2-6 from downtown and 3-4 at the line while adding four assists, two blocks and three steals in his first career start.
 
Mo Lee added 14 points off the bench while Mabry and Ebomwonyi scored nine points each. Carter and EJ Reed each scored six while Damion Clemons (4) and Jacob Morales (3) rounded out the Tarleton scoring.
 
Despite being outrebounded 33-37, Tarleton outscored the Hardrockers 40-12 in the paint, 26-11 off 22 Mines turnovers and 27-19 off the bench.
 
Tarleton State will be back in action Friday for the first game of the 2015 calendar season when they host York College at 7 p.m. Friday's game will be the 800^th game in the Tarleton career of head coach Lonn Reisman.