ALLEN – Tarleton State's valiant second-half rally came up just short in the LSC Tournament semifinal round and the Texans fell to Texas A&M-Commerce 53-51 at the Allen Event Center Friday night.
 
"That was two very good teams fighting very hard to win a ball game," said head coach Lonn Reisman. "It was a tale of two halves for us. We had our shot to win the game. It was a tough game and both teams played very hard."
 
The first half was one to forget for the Texans, who shot just 40 percent from the floor, including 33 percent from downtown, and 56 percent from the line while Commerce connected on 55 percent of its shots, including a 6-9 effort from beyond the arc in the opening 20 minutes.
 
"We didn't play very well in the first half," said junior forward EJ Reed. "We got our shots and they just weren't falling. In the second half, we executed the defensive game plan a little better and gave ourselves a chance to win the game."
 
Commerce got on the board first with the opening four points of the game before a free throw by EJ Reed and a 3-ball from Malcolm Hamilton got Tarleton on the board and started things over at 4-4.
 
The teams jockeyed for position over the next eight minutes as a pair of Michael Hardge free throws gave Tarleton an 18-17 lead with 6:30 left in the opening half. Mo Lee followed up with a triple from the right wing to give Tarleton its biggest lead of the half at 21-17.
 
The Lions pushed back, however, as Commerce scored the next 16 consecutive points to retake the lead and extend it to 12 at 33-21 with 1:58 left in the opening frame. Tarleton got four points from Reed in the final two minutes while Commerce only managed a mid-range jumper at the buzzer to send the game into halftime with Tarleton trailing 25-35.
 
Commerce continued to lead over the first six minutes of the new half, pushing its lead to 11 at 41-30 until a Hardge triple with 14:14 left on the clock sparked the Texan offense into new life.
 
The Hardge 3-ball started a 14-2 Tarleton run over the next six minutes that ended with Tarleton taking its first lead of the second half on three Mo Lee free throws. Lee was fouled on a triple from the left wing and sank all three free shots to put Tarleton up 44-43 with 7:48 left.
 
After Commerce retook the lead at 45-44 with 7:20 left, Tarleton State held Commerce without a field goal over the rest of the game but the Lions hit eight free throws while the Texans could add just seven on their side of the scoreboard. Lee took the final 3-point look for Tarleton at the top of the key, but it rimmed out as the final buzzer sounded.
 
The Texan defense was on point in the second half, holding Texas A&M-Commerce to 19 percent from the floor on 4-21 shooting including 0-6 from beyond the arc for just 18 total second-half points.
 
In Tarleton's eight-man rotation Friday night, EJ Reed led the Texans with 15 points while Malcolm Hamilton added nine off the bench. Hardge scored eight while Lee tallied seven. Davene Carter (4), Nosa Ebomwonyi (3), Deshawn Riddick (3) and Damion Clemons (2) rounded out the scoring.
 
As a team, Tarleton shot 40 percent from the field on identical 8-20 shooting halves from the floor to go along with 30 percent on 7-23 shooting from downtown. The Texans were also 12-19 from the charity stripe while Commerce was 15-19.
 
The Texans, who have been atop the South Central regional rankings in every week they have been released, will await the ultimate decision by the NCAA regional committee on Sunday night to see where the tournament will be played beginning next Saturday. The NCAA Selection Show will be 9:30 p.m. CST on NCAA.com and a watch party will be held at Wisdom Gym to determine the fate of the Texans.