STEPHENVILLE, Texas — Tarleton State Men's Basketball heads south to take on UTRGV to wrap up the fourth week of WAC play on Saturday evening at 6:30 p.m. at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
The game will be streamed on ESPN+ with Byron Anderson and Scott Garner. Kyle Crews will have the radio call on 90.5 KTRL. Live Stats will be provided by StatBroadcast and can be found on TarletonSports.com. For highlights and live score updates follow @tarletonmbb on Twitter and Instagram.
Tarleton knocked off I-20 rival, Abilene Christian, 79-71, to open the week on Thursday night to start out the fourth week of conference play.
Jakorie Smith led all scorers with 25 while shooting four-for-eight from deep.
Lue Williams and
KiAndre Gaddy also scored in double-figures with 15 each. The Texans broke out for a 40-30 lead at the break. Tarleton led by as many as 15 in the second half, but the Wildcats cut their deficit to four with under a minute remaining. But the Texans held off the comeback with a pair of Williams free throws and an
Adam Moussa steal to seal the deal.
The Purple and White are 4-2 in the WAC play, and 11-6 overall. The Texans remain second in the WAC Resume Seeding, meaning that if the season ended today, Tarleton would own the second overall seed in the conference tournament in Vegas. The WAC has adopted the resume system to determine seeding, but based on conference winning percentage, the Texans are tied for third behind unbeaten Grand Canyon and 5-2 Stephen F. Austin.
The Texans are in their fourth year of reclassification into NCAA Division I. The Texans' played its 100th game as a Division I institution last Thursday at California Baptist. Men's basketball joins baseball, softball and volleyball as the fourth program to reach the century mark in total games played. Tarleton is the sixth men's basketball reclassifying program since 2010 to win at least 50 games in its first 100. The Texans have the eighth-best winning percentage of all 31 reclassifying programs since 2010. Tarleton owns the third highest winning percentage among the 11 reclassifying schools this season.
KiAndre Gaddy leads the league in double-doubles (five) and offensive rebounds (69). Gaddy ranks in the top seven in five different statistical categories in the conference. Gaddy was named the WAC Player of the Week on Jan. 2 for the final week of 2023.
Joseph Jones will be standing on the Texan sideline for the thirteenth time this season. Jones has been filling in for coach
Billy Gillispie since Nov. 19 who has not been with the team due to medial circumstances. Jones was named the acting head coach on Dec. 19. He holds an 8-4 record during his time on the sidelines.
UTRGV opened the week in Arlington, falling to the UT Arlington Mavericks, 91-73. Elijah Elliott posted 22 points for the Vaqueros in the defeat. UTRGV is 2-5 in conference play this season with wins over Seattle U and Utah Valley. Head coach Matt Figger is in his seventh season as a head coach and his fourth with the Vaqueros.
The Texans own the all-time series, 6-3 and are 6-2 when both schools are Division I. The two squads met earlier this year in Wisdom Gym where Smith beat the buzzer to give the Texans a 77-75 victory. Overall, Tarleton is 3-2 in Edinburg.
Tarleton will return to Stephenville for a pair of contests next week. The Texans will host Southern Utah on Thursday at 7 p.m. and close out the week hosting Utah Tech at 4 p.m. Both matches will be held in Wisdom Gym and will be streamed on ESPN+. Thursday, early arriving fans will receive a free "States Up" foam finger. Next Saturday will be the annual "White Out" with the first-arriving fans receiving a free "White Out Wisdom" t-shirt.
