NACOGDOCHES, Texas ­— Tarleton State Men's Basketball opens its WAC slate on the road with a Wednesday night contest against Stephen F. Austin at the William R. Johnson Coliseum.
 
The contest will be streamed on ESPN+ with Chase Merrell and Jonathan Shuskey on the call. Kyle Crews will be on KTRL 90.5 FM. For live score updates and highlights follow Tarleton Men's Basketball on Instagram and Twitter @tarletonmbb. The Texans are set to tip against the Lumberjacks at 6:30 p.m.
 
The Texans will be led by Joseph Jones as head coach Billy Gillispie will not be with the team due to health circumstances.
 
Tarleton State is opening conference play the earliest they ever have and are tipping off the first conference game the WAC has played in November ever. With the new schedule this season adopting a 20-game conference slate, it was necessary to have a pair of games played in a week before the new year.
 
Tarleton is entering conference play, 4-2, their best six-game start to the season as a Division I program. Last week the Purple and White were crowned the SoCal Challenge Sand Division Champions with a pair of wins against Austin Peay and Cal State Bakersfield.
 
Jakorie Smith had himself a week at the SoCal Challenge, setting a Sand Division single game record with 28 points against Austin Peay, leading the team in scoring in both games en route to the Texans Championship title, and being named the Sand Division MVP. Smith followed up his performance on Monday earning the WAC Player of the Week.
 
KiAndre Gaddy turned in his second double-double performance of the season with 12 points and 12 boards in the championship game against CSU-Bakersfield. Gaddy earned a nod to the All-Tournament Team following his impressive performance against the Roadrunners.
 
For the first time in the Division I era, a pair of Texans notched a double-double in the same game. Gaddy paired with Emmanuel Innocenti (13 rebounds, 11 points) became the first duo to accomplish the feat since 2020.
 
The Texans have stuck with the same lineup the past four games and are currently 3-1 with that rotation.
 
Stephen F. Austin enters conference play, 4-2 coming after a 2-1 week in the Cayman Islands. The Lumberjacks reached the title game where they fell, 79-49 to Utah State. The Jacks were picked to finish second in the WAC this season following their runner-up finish a year ago. Kyle Keller returns to Nacogdoches for his eighth season at the helm of the program. He touts an 89-70 record after having three seasons of wins vacated from the beginning of his career.
 
Wednesday will mark the 18^th time the two programs have met and just the third time since 2020. The Texans earned their first victory of the series two seasons ago in Stephenville, 77-71.
 
Tarleton State will wrap up their early one week of WAC play on Saturday opening its four-game homestand stretching into the middle of December against UTRGV. Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m. and will be streamed on ESPN+ with Kyle Crews having the KTRL 90.5 FM radio call.