LAWRENCE – For one night, one half of James Naismith Court at Allen Fieldhouse belonged to Tarleton State basketball.
Playing their second game of the 2021-22 season, the Texans battled the nation's No. 3 ranked team – the Kansas Jayhawks – on Friday at the birthplace of basketball.
The Jayhawks won the game, 88-62, gradually wearing down the Texans in the second half after Tarleton trailed by just eight points at 39-31 at halftime and was within six of the hosts following the first possession out of the intermission.
But the spectacle throughout the day, exposure for Tarleton basketball and the university as a whole and effort the Texans displayed on the hardwood superseded the end result.
The Texans were first greeted by Jayhawks head coach Bill Self at shootaround several hours before tipoff. Self – the second-winningest coach in KU basketball history at 524-118 – shook each player's hand individually and shared a brief message of encouragement.
"Toughness always prevails over six months," he said, lauding the Texans' hard-nosed style of play. "Skill prevails over just one night. Toughness always beats talent over the course of time."
Self was 50 percent of a long-anticipated reunion on Friday night, the other half being Tarleton head man Billy Gillispie. The two head coaches worked together at Tulsa (1997-2000) and Illinois (2000-2002) and squared off on opposite benches for the first time in a decade.
The longtime friends embraced and shook hands pregame. Once starting lineup introductions concluded, though, it was all business.
KU won its 49th consecutive home-opener dating back to 1973. The sellout crowd of 16,300 spectators was by far the largest audience Tarleton has played in front of in school history.
The Jayhawks had to work early on to extend their record streak. Tarleton got on the board first with a dribble-drive and left-handed finish by Shamir Bogues and kept the game even at 6-6 with 13:56 to go in the half following a floater by Montre Gipson
The fast start was the beginning of Bogues' best game in Purple and White. The sophomore scored a career-high 20 points – 15 of which came in the first half – to go along with a game-high four steals.
Gipson was every bit as good as Bogues offensively. He racked up 14 first-half points on his way to an eventual 19. The 5-11 guard played above his height all evening, converting contested layups from both sides of the glass and snagging a team-high six rebounds.
The pair of guards were the catalysts behind a late first-half surge by Tarleton. KU assumed a 25-12 lead at the nine-minute mark of the period. The Texans responded with a 9-0 scoring run over the ensuing two-and-a-half minutes that culminated in Self burning a timeout and a hushed home crowd.
Gipson followed up a midrange jumper by freshman Noah McDavid with a drive-and-finish through the left side of the paint. Bogues then hit a long two-point field goal on the right baseline to reach double figures. He canned a triple from the left key off a pick-and-pop to complete the sequence.
KU responded with four points out of the timeout, but Gipson answered with seven straight points to keep Tarleton within striking distance. After a scoring drought that spanned 3:31, Gipson drained a buzzer-beating jumper to get the Texans back within single digits. He followed with a contested finish at the rim and a wide open three on the left baseline that held the Jayhawks edge to eight points at 37-29.
Tarleton stayed within single digits of KU as late as the 15:28 mark of the second half at 50-41. The Jayhawks gradually separated with an 18-9 scoring run that spanned more than 10 minutes and scored 20 points in the final five minutes of action.
Tahj Small scored all 12 of his points in the second half. The 6-5 guard is second on the team in scoring (11.5 ppg) through two contests this winter.
The Texans finished with a 13-9 edge in turnovers forced and had nine steals to the Jayhawks' three. The program's patented pressure defense was on display from the get-go. Tarleton turned the Jayhawks over six times before the game clock struck 11:30 in the first half.
Tarleton did not have a player enter the game taller than 6-6 until the final minute. Sophomore swingman Freddy Hicks completed Gillispie's guard-heavy starting lineup. The Jayhawks swatted 11 shots and outrebounded Tarleton 41-25.
Despite the noticeable size disadvantage, Tarleton knifed into the paint with regularity, finishing with 34 points inside the key.
KU knocked down nine 3-point field goals to Tarleton's three and shot 59 percent from the field.
Tarleton now draws another NCAA Tournament regular in Wichita State when it faces the Shockers at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in the Sunflower State.
