STEPHENVILLE – No. 15 Tarleton dropped its second straight road game Thursday night as the Texans fell in their first-ever trip to Odessa 86-74 to the Falcons.
 
The game moved UT Permian Basin into a tie for first place with Tarleton in the Lone Star Conference standings with one game left to play. Tarleton will visit West Texas A&M Saturday at 2 p.m., where a win will secure the Texans at least a share of the Lone Star Conference championship. Meanwhile, UT Permian Basin will host Texas A&M-Commerce.
 
UT Permian Basin came out firing to the tune of a 20-6 lead over the first 7:30, but a 3-ball from Ridell Camidge sparked the Texans for an 18-4 run that brought the game back even at 24-24. The teams traded buckets over the next two minutes until 28-28 when Camidge and Riddick went back-to-back for a two and a three to put the Texans up five points with 2:49 left in the opening half.
 
Tarleton took the five-point lead into the final minute before UT Permian Basin scored four unanswered in the final 60 seconds to send the Texans into halftime with a 36-35 lead.
 
In the second half, however, Tarleton went on to be outscored 51-38. The Texans shot .314 from the floor, including .304 from downtown, while the Falcons shot .583 from the floor and .455 from downtown in the final 20 minutes.
 
"They have a very good team," said head coach Lonn Reisman. "I thought we did a great job in the first half. We executed really well – up until the last shot, anyway. We made a poor decision with our last shot of the half and ended up going into halftime with a one-point lead instead of three, five, or six-point lead.
 
"In the second half though, we got away from everything we talked about," he added. "We made very, very bad decisions with our passes. Our defense was absent in the second half – and it's been like that the last two times out. We can't keep wishing we still had certain players. We have what we have and we need to go out and play. We're still playing for at least a tie at the top of the conference. We're still playing for quite a bit."
 
Camidge led the team with a 22-point performance on 8-17 shooting from the floor and 6-13 shooting from beyond the arc. The junior from North Carolina also grabbed five rebounds and three steals.
 
Romond Jenkins recorded a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds while Deshawn Riddick and Brandon Willis each chipped in nine points. Anthony Davis (8), Chantz Chambers (6), Sawyer Kipp (3), and Nosa Ebomwonyi (2) rounded out the scoring for Tarleton.
 
Tarleton will head to Canyon for a Saturday showdown with West Texas A&M at 4 p.m. The game will be broadcast on the American Sports Network and NCAA.com as a part of the NCAA Division II Basketball Showcase.