SAN ANGELO – It had all the story lines a Division II basketball fan could want.
 
A showdown to nationally-ranked top 10 teams, who happen to be conference rivals that have squared off against each other in each of the last two NCAA South Central Regional championship games, that – just to make things even more interesting – would ultimately be playing for sole possession of first place in the Lone Star Conference standings when West Texas A&M fell to Midwestern State on the same night.
 
Tarleton (13-1, 5-0) delivered in a big way by taking care of the No. 5 Rams on their home court in San Angelo to improve to 5-0 in Lone Star Conference play with a 92-60 rout. It was Tarleton's largest win over Angelo State since February 11, 2006 when the Texans knocked off the Rams 94-60 in San Angelo.
 
Thursday night, Tarleton took an early hit when Romond Jenkins picked up two fouls in the first 30 seconds of the game, ending his half of basketball after less-than one minute of game time, but the bench gave the Texans a huge spark in his absence.
 
The teams traded buckets over the opening 15 minutes as neither team was able to pull away by more than one possession until a jumper from freshman Anthony Davis at the four-minute mark of the first half started an 8-0 Tarleton run that forced Angelo State into a timeout.
 
Angelo came out of the break and pulled within six, but Curtiss Anderson – who gave Tarleton five points and three rebounds in 14 minutes of first-half action – threw down a slam dunk off a dish from Ridell Camidge to start a 6-1 Tarleton run to put the Texans up 13 with 15 seconds left. Angelo hit a last second three ball before half to cut Tarleton's halftime lead to 10 at 39-29.
 
Out of the break, Jenkins came out on fire.
 
The senior from Midwest City, Oklahoma scored all 20 of his points on 9-11 shooting from the floor that included four monster slam dunks. Meanwhile, his fellow Texan senior Chantz Chambers also topped 20 points as the Tarleton guard led the way with 22 points, six steals, and five rebounds.
 
In the second half, Angelo pulled within single digits at 45-39 with 15 minutes left in the game but a jumper from Jenkins started Tarleton's biggest run of the night as the Texans went on to outscore Angelo 10-2 to pull away at 57-41 with 11:54 left. The Texans continued to pile it on the rest of the way, leading by as many as 32 and never by less than 14.
 
"I think we were pretty keyed up," said head coach Lonn Reisman. "Any time you play a Lone Star Conference game of this caliber on the road, I think the kids really get keyed up. Early on, I think we were a little too keyed up, but we told them in the early timeouts that they needed to lock-in and they did a good job of doing that."
 
Josh Hawley and Anthony Davis also cracked double figures with 10 points each while Camidge scored seven points. Deshawn Riddick (5), Brandon Willis (5), Anderson (5), Nosa Ebomwonyi (3), Sawyer Kipp (3), and Kealon Clayborne (2) rounded out the scoring for the Texans.
 
Tarleton will look for its first 6-0 start to Lone Star Conference play since 2014 when they head to Texas A&M-Kingsville for a 2 p.m. tip-off against the Javelinas Saturday.