STEPHENVILLE, Texas — Tarleton State Men's Basketball continues its homestand after its first victory in the EECU Center with a 7 p.m. tip against Merrimack on Tuesday night.
The Texans picked up their first win of the regular season, an 85-77 victory of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Tarleton State was led in scoring by junior
Dior Johnson's 32-point effort. Johnson posted the 14th most points in the NCAA and the most by a WAC player in the first week of play. Johnson leads the team in scoring averaging 18.3 points per game across the first three contests.
The game will be sponsored by Technip FMC and will be streamed on ESPN+ as will all home games this season. In honor of Veterans Day, Veterans can claim their tickets at vettix.org. The game will also be streamed on the radio by 90.5 KTRL and available online on the Tarleton Sports Radio Network. Live Stats will be provided by Stat Broadcast. For the latest updates, content and highlights, follow @tarletonmbb on Instagram and X.
"The fans will come and watch a really hard playing, hard-working team," said head coach
Billy Gillispie. "Tarleton State fans know their sports and they watch everything we have here and we need to honor their presence. We hope that we have that fantastic crowd on Tuesday night."
Freddy Hicks has always made a living at the line. Throughout his six seasons he has made 486 of his 659 attempts. The senior leads all active NCAA D1 players by 6 makes and by over 50 attempts. Hicks is the D1 era leader for the Texans in free throws made (387), double the second-best Jakorie Smith (160). The senior has made the second most free throws in the nation (24) this season. Hicks took 15 attempts from the charity stripe on opening night. He converted on 13 of them, an 86.7 percent clip. Hicks made the second most FT's among all players in the NCAA on Opening Night.
Dior Johnson became the seventh different Texan in the D1 era to score 30+ points, totaling eight times in the D1 era.
Freddy Hicks is the only player to score 30+ twice. Johnson's 32-point effort is the most by a player in the WAC and ranked 14th in the NCAA so far this season. He set new Texans season highs in points and made field goals (9). He tied Douglas' season best of four made three pointers. Johnson scored 18 of the final 20 Texan second half points including a 14-consecutive Texan point streak. He scored eight of the final 10 Texan points in the first half as well.
Freddy Hicks returns for the Texans for his sixth collegiate season and fifth as a Texan. Hicks led the team in points, rebounds and assists per game last season, playing in seven contests. Hicks is the Texans D1 era leader in rebounds (457), total points (1066), field goals made (311), field goals attempted (745), free throws made (387) and free throws attempted (524). He missed the first 16 games of the season due to a foot injury and then reinjured it and missed several more contests. He became the first Texan in its D1 era to score 1000 points in his Texan career coming on a free throw against Utah Valley in the final regular season game of the season. Hicks was the 2021 WAC Freshman of the Year and has been a two-time Preseason All-WAC selection.
Kade Douglas has been raining from three-point land in each of the Texans last two games. Douglas shot a season best for the Texans with four made three pointers at LSU. The next game against TAMU-CC he drained three triples to total a season-high seven from beyond the arc. Douglas totaled 19 points at LSU, one shy of his career high. He became the third Texan to score at least 15 in either of the first two games and one of seven to score in double figures. The junior transfer tied for a season high with six made shots from the floor with 12 attempts, and a perfect 3-for-3 from the charity stripe in the second game of the season. He followed up that performance with 18 points against the Islanders. He made six shots from the floor and added a 3-for-4 performance from the free throw line.
Tarleton State is averaging 23.7 made free throws per game after the first two contests of the season. The Texans rank first in the WAC with the mark. Tarleton State made 29 in their first game against SMU and last game against TAMU-CC and 13 on Wednesday against LSU. Their 23.7 per game ranks 32nd in the nation.
Tarleton State is ranked 28th in the nation and leads the WAC in bench points per game. In each of the first three games, the Texan bench has outscored their starters, representing 62 percent of the points scored this season. In each game at least one has scored in double digits off the bench, with three accomplishing it at LSU.
Merrimack is in its second season as a member of the MAAC, after starting its D1 era in the NEC.MC started their transition to D1 from D2 in 2019. They were 61-52 during their four-year transition period. In their five seasons in the NEC, MC won the regular season title three times, and the conference tournament in 2022-23. They were still in transition and not eligible for March Madness. In each of their final two seasons in the NEC they were the regular season champions. In their first year in the MAAC last year they finished second in the regular season and lost in the semifinals of the conference tournament. As a member of NCAA D2, the Warriors went to the NCAA D2 Tournament 11 times, reaching the Sweet 16 twice.
Tarleton State will hit the road on Friday to take on Baylor for the second year in a row. Tip from the Foster Pavilion is slated for 8 p.m.
