BEAUMONT – In the first of soon-to-be many meetings between Tarleton and Lamar on the hardwood, round one went to the Texans.
Tarleton knocked off the Cardinals 62-57 in a Wednesday night Western Athletic Conference affair inside the Montagne Center.
The win snapped a four-game losing streak for Tarleton (9-13, 4-5 WAC) and marked its sixth-ever conference victory.
Lamar (2-18, 0-9 WAC) has now dropped 11 straight ballgames with the result. The teams square off again on Feb. 26 in Stephenville in what will be Tarleton's final home game of the 2021-22 campaign.
The Cardinals proved pesky despite playing shorthanded. Tarleton led 34-28 at the break, but Lamar scored 12 of the first 17 points out of the intermission to assume a 40-39 edge with 13:51 to go.
Montre Gipson and Freddy Hicks, however, quickly decided they had seen enough.
A free throw from Hicks followed by a 3-pointer by Gipson and fast break dunk via the right arm of Hicks off a no-look bounce pass from Tahj Small capped an 11-0 run over the ensuing three minutes that gave Tarleton the lead for good.
Gipson's fourth long ball of the evening – he finished 4-5 from downtown – out of a Lamar timeout then gave the Texans their largest lead of the evening at 53-42 with 9:05 to go.
The 5-11 guard tallied a game-high 18 points on 6-13 shooting. He has now scored in double figures in 15 consecutive ballgames.
Gipson, Hicks and fellow guard Noah McDavid each played the full 40 minutes for Tarleton. The Texans entered seven players in the contest.
Hicks engineered yet another all-around performance against his WAC peers in a game that constituted the midway point of conference play. The Searcy, Arkansas native finished with 15 points, six rebounds and four assists.
He tallied all of his points in the game's first 30 minutes to keep Tarleton in front for all but 70 seconds.
Hicks has increased his scoring average from 9.4 points per game to 11.4 points per game since conference play began on Dec. 30. The sophomore has been in double digits in eight-of-nine WAC affairs.
McDavid joined his position-mates in double figures with 11 points on the strength of three makes behind the arc.
Small and Shamir Bogues posted identical stat lines of eight points, seven rebounds and four assists to round out Tarleton's list of individual performers.
The Cardinals trimmed Tarleton's edge down to five points with just over five minutes left to play. Small, though, carried a defender through the restricted area on the next possession and completed the and-one to increase the Texans advantage to 57-49 at the five-minute mark of the half.
Lamar later got within three points at 59-56 with 1:04 remaining. Gipson then took it upon himself to thwart any prospect of a Cardinals comeback.
The senior curled in a layup with 48 seconds left on the game clock off an isolation drive to give Tarleton a two-possession lead. Lamar hit one-of-two free throws to make the score 61-57. Gipson then dribbled down the entire shot clock on the following possession with the Cardinals electing not to foul, crossed over a defender and got to the line to ice the game with another foul shot with 16 seconds remaining.
Lamar out-rebounded Tarleton 41-32 in the contest but the Texans had the edge in assists (15-10) and turnovers (10-6). The Texans' six turnovers were their fewest in a game this season and in true Division I matchups.
Tarleton is now 13-2 in games against teams from the Lone Star State in its D1 era.
The Texans now have an opportunity to even their conference record at .500 when they visit UTRGV (6-14, 1-7 WAC) on Saturday. Tarleton swept the Vaqueros in back-to-back games in March in Edinburg to close out their inaugural D1 season. UTRGV fell to ACU 87-85 on Thursday in a game it led by double digits late in the second half.
Tipoff for Saturday's tilt is set for 7 p.m.
