STEPHENVILLE, Texas — Tarleton State Men's Basketball hosts the Seattle U Redhawks in the regular season finale at Wisdom at Gym on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m.

In a thank you for the great fan support that all season, Tarleton State is thanking fans with free admission to everyone for Saturday's game. Prior to the contest, Tarleton's retiring longtime AD Lonn Reisman will be honored with a pregame reception at the Barry B. Thompson Student Center Ballrooms. In Wisdom Gym, a "Senior Day" presentation will honor the Texans four graduating players and three graduating managers just before tip-off. Throughout the entirety of the contest, fans will have the chance to win a variety of prizes including a 75" Samsung Smart TV, JBL Party Box 110 Speaker, a 250-dollar gift card to Barefoot Outfitters and a 36" Blackstone Griddle. One prize will be announced to a fan checked in on Texan Rewards at each media timeout.
 
The game will be streamed on ESPN+ with Byron Anderson and Scott Garner on the call. 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.
 
Despite Thursday's loss to Utah Valley, the Texans can still win a share of the WAC regular season title. Tarleton would need a win over Seattle U combined with a GCU loss to CBU to earn a share of the title. Both Tarleton and GCU would result with a 16-4 conference record and with a 1-1 split head-to-head.
 
The Purple and White are 15-4 in the WAC play, and 22-8 overall, breaking program records for total and WAC wins in a season and securing an over-.500 overall record for the first time in the D1 era. The Texans have reached the 20-win mark the for the 20th time in program history and the first in their Division I era.
 
Tarleton State announced on Wednesday morning that it had extended the contract of Billy Gillispie until 2026. Acting head coach Joseph Jones who has been filling in since Nov. 19 will finish out the remainder of the season at the helm of the program. Gillispie will remain in an advisory role for the first-year head coach. Jones has amassed a 20-6 record this season, the most by any coach this season that didn't start the season with the head job.
 
The Purple and White fell into a late scoring drought and ultimately fell 63-60 to Utah Valley on Thursday night. TSU scored just two points in the final nine minutes of play to lose a 12-point lead and give the Wolverines their 10^th conference win of the season. Devon Barnes scored a team-high 18 followed by Jakorie Smith with 16. 10 of Barnes' 18 came in the second half where the Texans only accounted for 20 as a team.
 
The Texans finished the month of February a perfect 8-0, the first perfect month of three games or more in their D1 era and the 19th in program history. Tarleton also ended the regular season on an eight-game road winning streak.
 
KiAndre Gaddy leads the league in offensive rebounds (115). The senior would rank ninth in the nation with 3.83 offensive boards per game. The senior ranks seventh in program history and is 41 boards behind program record holder Danny Jones 153-mark. Gaddy ranks in the top seven in four different statistical categories in the conference.
 
Tarleton became the second school to clinch a bid to the 2024 WAC Tournament with a win combined with a Southern Utah loss on 2/15. Tarleton joined GCU to punch their tickets first, and was later joined by Seattle U, UT Arlington, Abilene Christian, Utah Valley and Stephen F. Austin. California Baptist and Utah Tech are fighting for the eighth and final slot. CBU can clinch a berth with a win or a Utah Tech loss. Utah Tech needs a win and CBU loss to GCU to secure its spot.
 
Tarleton has been consistent with their starting lineup, featuring the same five starters for the last 28 games this season. Currently it is tied for the sixth active longest streak in the country. The Texans are one of 30 schools in the country to use three or less starting lineups this season.
 
Last week, Barnes earned his first WAC weekly award after his 55-point week as he earned WAC Newcomer of the Week. The sophomore transfer is the fourth Texan to earn a WAC weekly selection, making Tarleton the only WAC school with more than three different players this season.
 
Seattle U started the week with a 64-59 loss to ACU on Thursday in Abilene. The Redhawks will finish fourth in the conference standings behind UTA. SU enters the week touting a 18-12 overall record and 11-8 WAC record.
 
Earlier this season, the Texans bested the Redhawks 82-77 in front of a nearly full crowd in Seattle. Smith's 24-point first half effort led the Purple and White to the upset victory on the road. The victory was Tarleton's first win in the state of Washington and its first defeat of Seattle U. The Redhawks own the all-time series, 2-1, and were victorious 76-68 the last time they were in Stephenville (Jan. 22, 2022).
 
Tarleton State will head out to Las Vegas for the 2024 WAC Tournament presented by Hercules Tire. The Texans are currently slated to have the second seed which would pit their first game on Friday night at 8:30 p.m. PT/10:30 p.m. CT in the semifinals at the Orleans Arena. The official bracket will be released on Sunday.