KINGSVILLE – No. 9 Tarleton survived a scare on the road from Texas A&M-Kingsville and pulled off a 50-47 win to move to 3-0 in the Lone Star Conference.
 
Tarleton improves to 13-2 overall and is now winners of four straight games. Tarleton's 50 points in the win is the lowest total since 2011 when the Texans defeated West Texas A&M 47-42.
 
The Texans managed only 18 points in the first half, by far the lowest total of the season, but limited A&M-Kingsville to just 22 points.
 
Tarleton trailed 20-13 with 2:37 remaining in the first half, the biggest deficit of the game and only had 11 points from the starting lineup. Malcolm Hamilton and Deshawn Riddick each scored five points in the first half to pace the Texans' offense that only shot 20.8 percent from the floor.
 
EJ Reed, who scored only two first-half points after coming in averaging a LSC-leading 19.9 points per game, opening the second half with five straight points to give the Texans a 23-22 lead with 16:30 remaining. Reed added 15 points in the second half to finish with 17 points and eight rebounds in the game.
 
Deshawn Riddick played a season-high 31 minutes off the bench and carried the Tarleton offense in the second half with points when the Texans needed them most. Riddick gave Tarleton a 4-point lead with a pull-up jumper that seemed to give the sophomore guard confidence down the stretch. Riddick and Reed would convert on a pair of free throws for a 41-33 lead with 4:21 left but TAMUK continued to hang around in the final minutes.
 
Leading 43-39, Michael Hardge found an open Xavier Smith at the top of the key and the 6-foot-8 forward drained the 3-pointer with 1:12 to go. Smith finished with five points, four rebounds and tied a career high with four blocks.
 
The Javelinas made it a three-point game at 46-43 with 50 seconds to go and Riddick drained a 3-point bucket right in front of the Tarleton bench to put the Texans ahead by six and clinch the win. Riddick scored a season-high 14 points along with four assists for Tarleton.
 
Tarleton went on to shoot 50 percent from the floor in the second half and 75 percent from three-point range. The Texans forced Kingsville into 16 turnovers and limited the Javelinas to 30 percent shooting during the game.
 
Tarleton will head to Midwestern State on Wednesday, Jan. 13 to face the No. 6-ranked Mustangs for the second top-10 matchup in a week.