Tarleton State (21-1, 10-1) vs. West Texas A&M (10-13, 2-9)
Date & Tip-off	Wednesday, Feb. 22 | 8 p.m. CT
LOCATION	Stephenville, Texas | Wisdom Gym
RADIO	KSTV FM 93.1 in Stephenville (Listen Live)
WEBCAST	TarletonSports.com
Live Stats	TarletonSports.com
GAME INFO	Game Notes (PDF)

 
THE GAME
The No. 3 Tarleton State Texans (21-1, 10-1 LSC) will close-out its mini two-game home swing this Wednesday, Feb. 19, hosting the West Texas A&M Buffs (10-13, 2-9 LSC) in another Lone Star Conference showdown and the final meeting of the regular season between the two squads. Tip-off between the Texans and Buffs is set for 8 p.m. at Wisdom Gym in Stephenville.
 
Covering the Game
Tarleton State Basketball will be broadcast live on KSTV (93.1 FM) throughout the season. Casey Hogan will have the call with Mike Young joining him for color commentary on mosts of the broadcasts. The games can also be found on-line at www.kstvfm.com for Saturday's contest.
 
A live video feed will be available as well by logging onto TarletonSports.com and clicking the "Live Video" link at the top of the page. Live stats will be provided and can also be found online at TarletonSports.com.
 
Series Information
The Buffs lead the all-time series 23-21 despite losing the previous two contests and last four out of five. The Texans are 12-7 all-time when facing the Buffs in Stephenville and have not dropped a home game to WTAMU since Jan. 24, 2009. The home team betwen Tarleton and WTAMU had won the last nine meetings before the Texans downed the Buffs 87-63 in Canyon earlier this season on Jan. 22.
 
The 87 points the Texans scored in Canyon were the most points a Texan team had ever scored against the Buffs on the road, while the 24-point victory is just the third largest margin of victory between either team in the series. WTAMU's 27-point win (67-40) over the Texans back on Feb. 18, 1995 marks the larges margin, while Tarleton's 26-point win (75-49) on Dec. 30, 2002 ranks second in the series.
 
Last Time out for the Texans
Not even a national television audience could keep the Texans down this past Saturday as Tarleton rolled to a 94-58 win over Texas A&M-Kingsville in a game that was broadcast live on CSN Houston. Chuck Guy scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half and De'Andre Upchruch was a perfect 6-for-6 from beyond the arc to finish with 21 points.
 
The Texans stormed out to 41-28 halftime lead and then used runs of 14-6 and 14-0 to take a commanding 33-point lead. The Javelinas never recovered and had its most lopsided defeat on the season.
 
Scouting the BuffS
West Texas A&M is on a two-game losing streak and has dropped four of its past five games. The Buffs are just 3-6 when playing on the road this season, but the last time a WT hit the road after a two-game losing streak, they downed Texas A&M-Kingsville 58-51.
 
The Buffs are scoring an LSC-low 68.3 points per game, but the WT scoring defense ranks third in the league giving up just 68.7 points to opposing teams. The Buffs are shooting 46.2 percent from the field, which includes a 36.0 percent effort from downtown.
 
The WT defense is giving up just 34.2 percent to opposing teams beyond the arc, which ranks second in the league behind Tarleon's LSC-leading 30.4 percentage. WT is second in assists (14.6), but rank last in steals (5.0).
 
Drimir Ferguson ranks 10th in the LSC with his 13.6 points per game average and is second in the league with 5.1 assists per contest. Antjuan Ball ranks first in the league with 9.6 rebounds per game and he is third with 1.3 blocks per night.
 
Texans in the NABC Poll
The Texans moved up to No. 3 this week after going 2-0 in its last two contests. Tarleton earned 363 total points, 20 points behind Drury who came in at No. 2 this week. Metro State stayed atop the standings at No. 1 this week.
 
The Texans have been ranked inside the NABC Top-25 for 81 different weeks since making its first-ever appearance in the poll back on Dec. 17, 2002. Including this week, Tarleton has been ranked inside the top 10 for 49 different weeks and has been a top five team for 32 weeks.
 
Reisman notches career-win No. 550
Tarleton head coach Lonn Reisman earned his 550th career win lase Wednesday when the Texans downed Angelo State 72-64 in San Angelo. Reisman, who is in his 26th season at Tarleton, is now 551-227 all-time in his career. Reisman became just the 26th coach overall and ninth active NCAA Division II head coach to earn 550 wins. He is the 83rd coach at both the D-1 and D-II levels to achieve the feat.
 
Tarleton back to a Winning Program
With an 83-81 victory over Midwestern State back on Jan. 15, the Tarleton Texan basketball program became a .500 team for just the second time since becoming a senior college back in 1961.
 
The Texans dropped its first ever game as a senior college and then won its first contest on Nov. 28, 1961. That was the last time the Texans had been a .500 team before the monumental victory up in Wichita Falls.
 
A few days after defeating the Mustangs, Tarleton downed Cameron 76-52 in Stephenville to earn its first winning record as a senior college. Heading into Saturday's contest, the Texans are now 730-725 all-time as a senior college.
 
Give me 20!
Tarleton won its 20th game of the season last Wednesday, giving head coach Lonn Reisman his 15th career 20-win season and his fifth in-a-row. Under Reisman, the Texans have averaged a little more than 21 wins per season over the past 26 years.
 
60 Percent or better
With Saturday's season-high 65.4 percent effort from the field, it marked the fourth time this season that a Texan team shot at least 60 percent or better from the field. The Texans had only shot 60 percent or better in one game over the previous five seasons.
 
The 65.4 percent is not only a season-high for the Texans, but it marks the highest field goal percentage from a Texan team since knocking down 69.2 percent against Hillsdale Baptist well over 10 years ago, back on Dec. 15, 2003. It is the third-highest shooting percentage under a Lonn Reisman-coached team.
 
Securing the LSC
A win against the Buffs on Wednesday, coupled with a Midwestern State loss would give the Texans at least a share of the Lone Star Conference Championship. Should the Mustangs win on Wednesday, the Texans would just need a win over Eastern New Mexico on Saturday to claim at least a share of the title.
 
What about Seeding
Should the Texans and Mustangs finish the season tied with the same conference record, Tarleton currently holds the tie-breaker for the No. 1 seed with its regular-season sweep over Angelo State.
 
On Fire from Downtown
The Texans shot a season-best 68.8 percent from beyond the arc on Saturday, exactly .100 percentage points better than its previous season-high. The 68.8 percent effort is the team's largest percentage since shooting 66.7 percent against Hillsdale Baptist back on Nov. 28, 2005. The Texans were 12-of-18 from downtown that evening.
 
Up next for the Texans
The Texans will hit the road for two of its last three games of the regular season, beginning this Saturday, Feb. 22, as the team travels to Portales, N.M., to face Eastern New Mexico.
 
Tarleton will then return home to host Lubbock Christian on Tuesday, Feb. 25, in a make-up game between the two schools that was postponed back on Nov. 23 due to weather. The contest against the Chaps will mark "Senior Night" for the Texan players as well.