Box Score TALLAHASSEE, Florida – Tarleton State Men's Basketball fell victim to a Florida State outburst in the second half to ultimately fall, 72-52, on Tuesday night at the Tucker Center.
Texans (0-3) trailed the Seminoles (3-0) by just five at the break but were unable to shorten it at all in the second half. Tuesday night marked the 10
th time in 13 Power Four matchups that the Texans trailed by nine or less at the half.
Chris Mpaka registered his first double-double of his career with 15 points and 11 boards. The junior college transfer notched his second-straight double-digit scoring effort. He also swatted a career-best five blocks, just two shy of
KiAndre Gaddy's D1 era best seven last season.
Matt Krass made it three-consecutive contests with 10 or more off the bench recording 11. The freshman made a trio of threes, also continuing his streak of at least two triples in the first three games.
Tarleton played without seven of their players, out due to injury. The players included
Freddy Hicks who returned for his final season in Stephenville and 2024 Texas Mr. Basketball finalist,
Keitenn Bristow.
The Texans started strong in the first half. The Purple and White grabbed an early lead in the first six minutes of the contest after a pair of back-to-back triples by
Izzy Miles and
Matt Krass to give Tarleton a 10-8 lead.
Bubu Benjamin nailed a mid-range jumper to give the Texans a 12-11 lead after a Noles triple.
The Seminoles took the lead with 13:27 remaining, but did not distance themselves from the Texans. With less than five minutes remaining in the half, the Noles up eight nearly made it ten, but was denied by Mpaka. A 6-1 Texan run fueled by a Mpaka dunk and a pair of made free throws cut the Florida State lead to just three with 3:08 to go.
The Noles responded with a 6-0 run of their own, but the Texans didn't falter after. The Texans cut the deficit nearly in half closing with five points in the final 20 seconds. Inbounding the ball with 5.7 ticks left,
Jordan Mizell raced down the court and found
Matt Krass at the top of the key where he sunk his second triple of the half as the horn sounded sending the Texans into the half down just five points, 33-28.
Florida State made a statement coming out of the break. The Noles scored the first eight points of the second half taking their largest lead of the night till that point, 41-28.
Matt Krass ended the run with his third three-pointer of the game.
It was all Noles for the remainder of the second half. At the midpoint of the second session, FSU ballooned its lead to 20, 55-35. Florida State expanded to its biggest lead of the night, 25, with a 64-39 advantage with 6:28 remaining. Tarleton cut its deficit back to 20 shortly after on a 5-0 run with three points coming from Mpaka. The Texans were never able to shorten it below 20, ultimately resulting in a defeat.
Tarleton shot 26.7 percent, edging out Florida State who shot at a 19.0 percent clip. The Purple and White kept up the stellar shooting from the charity stripe, shooting 71.4 percent compared to the 63.2 percent shot by the Seminoles. The Noles won the turnover battle forcing 21 and giving up 17. Florida State shot 44.0 percent from the floor (22-for-50) compared to the Texans shooting 31.1 percent (14-for-45).
The Texans return to Wisdom Gym on Thursday night against Tabor College at 7 p.m., before closing out the week on Sunday at Baylor.
