Box Score - Postgame Press Conference (Courtesy of Metro State)

DENVER, Colo. – The No. 2-seeded Tarleton State Texans set a new school record for most points scored in an NCAA Tournament game, downing the No. 7-seeded Texas A&M International Dustdevils 92-56 in first round action of the South Central Regional Saturday evening at Auroria Event Center in Denver, Colo.
 
The 36-point lead is Tarleton's largest margin of victory in a NCAA Tournament game as well, breaking the breaking the previous mark of its 17-point win over Missouri Southern State in a first round game back in 2012 in Wichita Falls.
 
Chuck Guy opened the scoring with a three-pointer at the 19:31 and the Texans were well on its way to a 47-16 lead in just the first half alone. TAMIU would not score its first bucket until the 16:45 mark, and by that point, the Texans already had a 10-0 lead.
 
The Dustdevils would get another two points on a pair of free throws at the 15:26 mark to make it a 13-4 game in favor of the Texans and Tarleton would counter with a 21-0 run to extend its lead to 34-4 with 6:55 left to play in the first half.
 
TAMIU would finally get its next bucket at the 6:18 mark, but by that time the Dustdevils were just 2-for-24 from the field over the first 13-plus minutes of play.
 
The Texans shot a blistering 63.0 percent from the field in the first half and that included a 9-for13 (69.2 percent) effort from beyond the three-point line. Tarleton turned the ball over just one time in the first half, while forcing 11 TAMIU turnovers and scoring 24 points off those miscues.
 
The Texans would go on to outscore the Dustdevils 45-40 in a second half that saw Tarleton finish the game with five players scoring in double figures, including three bench players in Emmanuel Andrews (13 points), Mohammed Lee (11) and Tashawn Mabry (12). Davene Carter added 13 points on Friday and De'Andre Upchurch scored a game-high 21 points.
 
Upchurch has now scored 20 points or more in four consecutive games and is averaging 24.0 points in his previous seven games.
 
Guy had an all-around night for the Texans, scoring eight points, pulling down five rebounds and dishing out a game-high eight assists.
 
The Texans finished the game shooting 59.6 percent from the field and sank a season-high 14 three-pointers as well. Tarleton shot 58.3 percent from downtown and finished shooting 66.7 percent from the charity stripe.
 
Tarleton had just five turnovers, forced 15 TAMIU turnovers, recorded four blocks and tallied six steals.
 
Tarleton's 92 points not only breaks a school record for most points in a NCAA Tournament game, but it also extended its school record of scoring at least 90 points or more to nine games on the season.
 
The Texan defense limited the Dustdevils to just 33.3 percent shooting and TAMIU knocked down just six of its 19 three-pointers. TAMIU came into the game averaging a little over 81 points per game, but were held to its third-lowest output of the season with its 56-point effort on Friday.
 
TAMIU's Matthew Pritchett led his squad with 11 points, while both Matthew Culliver and Johnel Grey recorded 10 points each.
 
The Texans, who improved to 28-2 overall, will move onto the semifinal round for the eighth time in school history. Tarleton will face Midwestern State, who downed Arkansas-Fort Smith in the game before, 72-66.
 
The two teams will meet up for the fourth time this season and second time in the past week. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. (CST) in Denver.

Quotes

Tarleton State University
Head Coach Lonn Reisman
"I thought our kids really came out focused and really carried our game plan. We've been working on this game plan for a while, and I thought they executed it well. I thought the focus was there, I thought the intensity was there, and I thought we played a very good team."
"We've been an explosive team all year, we came out and really shot the ball with a lot of confidence."
"It doesn't matter who scores on this team, what matters is that we advance. We had 22 assists tonight – we were really spreading the ball around early in the game, finding the open man, penetrating, and running our offense as probably as good as we've run it in the last couple of weeks."
"We looked like a team tonight that was really in the groove for making a run. That's what you want this time of year."

Chuck Guy
"I think today we got in our spots and wasn't forcing anything and we were sharing the ball."
"All year long with the assists, it's just trusting my teammates, and tonight they knocked down the open shots."
"Rebounding – we all had to go to the glass, everybody went to the glass."

De'Andre Upchurch
"I always come in with the confidence, thinking that every shot I take is going to be good."

Davene Carter
"On the offensive end for me, Chuck finds me, Church will find me, and with the dunks that just comes natural when they find me."
 
Texas A&M International University
Head Coach Bryan Weakley
"I'm just really proud of my guys, they fought all year. We have six seniors on the team, and we came a long way from last year, with this group. We made a great run at the end of the year, but we just ran into a team that has a great rhythm and is really well coached."
"It hurt us that Vadel [Faniel] didn't play many minutes. He didn't practice the last couple of days he had an eye infection, he wasn't used to the elevation, it was tough for him today."

Matthew Culliver Jr.
"Tarleton is a great team and in order to beat them, you gotta make shots. By us not making point blank shots, it just defeated us with frustration."
"I was just happy we beat them on the offensive end because that was our goal coming in for us to have a chance with the long, athletic guys."

Jordan Clark
"It was a tough journey for us, starting from day one, but to see us get to this point, to see us underestimated in our conference – I hate to lose like this – but it was a great feeling.