Tarleton State (24-1, 12-1) at A&M-Commerce (17-8, 6-7)
Date & Tip-off	Saturday, Mar. 1 | 7:30 p.m. CT
LOCATION	Commerce, Texas | TAMUC Fieldhouse
RADIO	KSTV FM 93.1 in Stephenville (Listen Live)
WEBCAST	LionAthletics.com
Live Stats	LionAthletics.com
GAME INFO	Game Notes (PDF)

 
THE GAME
The No. 2 Tarleton State Texans (24-1, 13-1 LSC) will close-out the 2013-14 regular season and Lone Star Conference schedule on the road against the A&M-Commerce Lions (17-8, 6-7 LSC) this Saturday, Mar. 1. Tip-off between the two squads is set for 7:30 p.m. at TAMUC Fieldhouse in Commerce.
 
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 LionAthletics.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 LionAthletics.com.
 
Series Information
The Texans and Lions will be meeting for the 59th time in a series thast is all knotted-up 29-29. Tarleton has won eight straight games over A&M-Commerce to get the series back to .500, and has won 11 of the previous 15 meetings.
 
The last time an A&M-Commerce team defeated Tarleton came back on Nov. 25, 2008, in a Lone Star Conference inter-divisional match-up in Stephenville. The last time a Texan team lost to a Lion team in Commerce came back on Dec. 6, 2007.
 
Tarleton won the series opener between the two squads earlier this season, downing the Lions 84-71 inside Wisdom Gym.
 
Last Time out for the Texans
Tarleton closed out the regular season home slate of games with an 87-60 win over Lubbock Christian. Four players scored in double figures and the Texans dished out a season-high 26 assists on the night.
 
Tarleton improved to 16-1 inside Wisdom Gym and has now accumulated an impressive home record of 79-6 (.930) in the past five seasons.
 
Scouting the Lions
The Lions have won three consecutive games and will head into Saturday's contest needing a win over the Texans, coupled with an Angelo State loss to earn the No. 3 seed in the upcoming LSC Championship Tournament in Allen. A win would give the Lions no-less than the No. 4 seed in the tournament.
 
With its win on Saturday at West Texas A&M, the Lions snapped an eight-game road losing streak in Lone Star Conference play, and a win this Saturday would give A&M-C its first four-game winning streak to end the regular season since 2004-05.
 
A&M-Commerce is hitting 74.8 percent of its foul shots this season, leading the league in free throw percentage, ranking second only to the Texans in free throws attempted (713) and free throws made (533). Better than 26 percent of the Lions' points this year have come from the free throw stripe, the highest in the LSC.
 
Senior guard Devondrick Walker had just two 20-point games in 56 games prior to this season. He went for 24 points in Saturday's win West Texas A&M, his fifth time to surpass the 20-point mark in a single game this season.
 
The Lions are averaging 82.0 points per game, which ranks second in the LSC behind Tarleton's 87.2 ppg, but A&M-C is giving up 77.7 points to opposing offenses, which ranks last in the league. The Lions are shooting 44.2 percent from the field and has a 37.1 percent effort from beyond the three-point line.
 
LaDon Carnegie leads the Lions with 14.7 ppg and Christan Macauley leads the team with his 7.6 boards per contest. Macauley also leads the Lions and the LSC with 68 blocks on the year. Kameron Price leads the team in both assists (65) and steals (32).
 
Pair of Texans Earn Weekly Honors
Tarleton State's De'Andre Upchurch and Jon Cathey-Macklin were each named LSC Players of the Week following their outstanding performances on the court last week. Upchurch earned co-Offensive Player of the Week recognition, while Cathey-Macklin took home Defensive Player of the Week honors.
 
Upchurch became the first Texan player to score 30-points or more in a game since 2007, as he paced the Texan offense with a career-high 38 points in Saturday's win at Eastern New Mexico. The senior guard added to his all-around night with a career-high 10 rebounds to record his first-ever double-double.
 
On the week, Upchurch shot 48 percent from the field, 50 percent from downtown and 94 percent from the charity stripe. He averaged 6.5 boards per game, dished out five assists and had one steal. Upchurch averaged 25.5 points per game this week and now leads the league in conference-game-scoring with 18.3 ppg.
 
Cathey-Macklin turned in one of his best defensive efforts this past week, averaging 10.0 rebounds per game and collecting a team-high five blocks. He had what was arguably the best game of his career this past Wednesday, scoring eight points, pulling down a career-high 13 boards and collecting three blocks in Tarleton's home win over West Texas A&M.
 
Texans in the NABC Poll
The Texans moved up to No. 2 this week after going 2-0 in its last two contests. Tarleton earned one first-place vote for a total of 383 total points. Metro State, who received 15 first place votes for 399 total votes, remained No. 1 this week.
 
The Texans have been ranked inside the NABC Top-25 for 82 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 50 different weeks and has been a top five team for 33 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 552-227 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.
 
60 Percent or better
With last 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.
 
Texans Claim third LSC Title
With Saturday's win over Eastern New Mexico, the Texans clinched at least a share of the Lone Star Conference title, but a win over A&M-Commerce on Saturday would give Tarleton its first out-right championship since 2004.
 
The Texans now have three LSC Championships in school history and this season's title marks the second championship in the past three seasons.