LAS VEGAS — The second-seeded Texans wound up on the wrong end of a final-second three-pointer in a 87-84 loss in the WAC Semifinals against third-seeded UT Arlington at the Orleans Arena on Friday night on ESPNU.
The Mavericks (20-13) will advance to the WAC Championship match on Sunday against top-seeded Grand Canyon. The Texans (23-9) will hope to find themselves in a postseason tournament on Sunday night.
Devon Barnes led the team in scoring for the tenth time this season with 24. He also added three assists and two rebounds.
Jakorie Smith scored in double figures yet again posting 23 points while sinking four triples.
Emmanuel Innocenti demonstrated why he was tabbed to the WAC All-Defensive team posting a game-high five steals. Junior transfer
Traivar Jackson found the scoring bug scoring a career-high 12 points. He led the team with two blocks and shot six-for-seven from the field.
Tarleton State took a two-point lead into halftime, 41-39 in a very tightly contested first 20 minutes of play. The Texans erupted out of the gate in the second twenty enlarging the lead to 13 just under four minutes in. Tarleton's 12-2 run originated with six straight Texan points by Gaddy on a pair of buckets and a pair of made free throws. A pair of triples by Smith and Barnes forced a UTA timeout to cap the outbreak to begin the half.
But, a pair of fouls charged to Gaddy in a 1:17 span forced coach Jones to bring Gaddy to the bench with four fouls at the 14:36 mark. The Mavericks trailed by 10, 61-51, when Gaddy left the game. The lead stayed in double-digits for most of the next six minutes, with the Texans boasting an 11-point lead at the 8:46 mark.
The Mavericks found their hot three-point shooting from the night before nailing three triples in succession to cut their deficit to just two. A pair of made free throws by Phillip Russell tied the game for the first time in the second half, 71-71 with 6:53 remaining.
The next seven minutes turned out to be some of the best seven minutes of the WAC Tournament this season. Over the next four minutes, the two teams were tied four times, but UTA still was unable to get the outright lead. Tied at 77 with 3:53 to go, Shemar Wilson connected from the paint after a TSU turnover to take a 79-77 lead. The Texans would make their next four freebies while the Mavs scored a bucket to be tied again at 81 with two minutes remaining.
Neither team scored in the next 100 seconds, until UT Arlington's DaJuan Gordon sunk a corner three after a Mavs offensive board. But, the Texans weren't done yet. Barnes brought the ball coast-to-coast and drove for the layup to cut the UTA lead to one. Barnes made the layup, but also drew the foul and tied the game after completing the three-point play by sinking his free throw.
With 13.3 seconds remaining, the Mavericks brought the ball down the floor. After Russell drove into a lane full of Texans, he found Brandyn Talbot in the corner in front of their bench where his shot found the bottom of the net with 3.3 ticks remaining. The Texans called their final timeout and drew up a play where Barnes found Smith in his favorite spot in front of the TSU bench. Smith launched an off-balanced triple that have been known to go in, but this one hit the glass and the buzzer sounded ending the Texans' WAC Championship hopes.
Tarleton snapped its 33 game-streak of winning when shooting 50 percent or better from the floor. The Texans shot 28-for-56, exactly 50.0 percent. TSU shot 40 percent from long-range connecting on eight of their 20 attempts. The Texans were solid at the charity stripe shooting 20-for-22, 90.9 percent.
The Texans will hope to hear their name called on Sunday night for a postseason tournament. Tarleton's 23-win season is their most in the Division I era.
