STEPHENVILLE, Texas — Tarleton State Men's Basketball looks for a perfect 3-0 homestand with a Saturday afternoon date against Utah Tech on 4 p.m. at the EECU Center.

The Texans (14-13 overall, 5-9 WAC) will host the Trailblazers (9-17, 5-8) for the second time this season in hopes in grabbing their first win of the season series. Utah Tech has won a pair of two possession games, 75-71 in Cedar City and 65-59 in Stephenville.

The game will be sponsored by The First Baptist Church of Stephenville and will be streamed on ESPN+ with Byron Anderson and RJ Choppy. Kyle Crews will have the radio call on 90.5 KTRL and online on the Tarleton Sports Radio Network. For the most up to date highlights, news and updates follow @tarletonmbb on Instagram and X.

For the first time in 2026, the Texans have strung together a pair of wins. Momentum seems to have shifted in Stephenville with back-to-back home wins to give the Texans a 2-0 start to their three-game week. The Texans hadn't won back-to-back games since Dec. 29, when they had gone on a five-game win streak.

Chris Mpaka set a new Texan record for offensive rebounds in a WAC game with seven against Southern Utah (2/19). He tied the record grabbing six against Utah Tech on 1/31. His  mark passed KiAndre Gaddy for the most by a Texan in WAC play, Gaddy had grabbed six three times during his Texan career. Gaddy holds the Texans D1 era single game record with nine while Raymond Jenkins owns the program record with 13 in 2017. Mpaka leads the WAC in conference play in offensive rebounds averaging 2.82 per game.

The Texans crashed the paint against Southern Utah recording 60 points in the paint. It marked the third time this season the Texans scored at least 60 but was the first time against a D1 opponent. The Texans made 33 shots, with 32 counting for two points. 30 of those 32 made shots came in the paint.

Tarleton State climbed into a tie for fifth with SUU on 2/19. The Texans hold the tiebreaker after winning the season series, 2-1. ACU holds the tie breaker with the Texans and currently is by themselves in last place. With a win against UTA on the final game of the Texan regular season, the Texans would own that tiebreaker as well. The Texans would need to pick up one more win than UTA does in the remaining games to tie UTA. 

Chris Mpaka is just two blocks away from tying KiAndre Gaddy for the most blocks in a Texan career in the D1 era. Mpaka posted 51 blocks in his debut season for the Texans, one shy of Gaddy's single season D1 era record. He has notched two or blocks i a single game six times this season. Overall, in his Texan career he has reached the feat 13 times. Last season he tallied five blocks in four different games. This year his season-best of four came on 11/11 against Merrimack.

The Texans are the only  team in the WAC to force their opponent to at least 10 turnovers every game this season. The second-longest streak in the conference is 22 games by ACU who only forced ACU to 8 turnovers on their fourth game of the season. The Wildcats are the only other team in the league to force 10+ in very WAC game. Tarleton State's streak dates back to Feb. 8, 2025 of 35-straight games with forcing 10 turnovers. Only twice in the past two seasons has the Texans forced less than 10 turnovers in a game.

Dario Domingos is in his final season of collegiate basketball, after spending his junior season with the Texans. Utah Tech is his third stop in the WAC starting at UTA, followed by Tarleton State. Domingos has been on fire as of late averaging 9.2 points in just 9.2 minutes per game in his last five appearances. He has scored in double figures three times this season, with two of those coming in the last four games. He had three-straight games where he didn't miss a shot with at least four attempts. He broke the streak two games ago when he went 5-for-10 against CBU in 11 minutes of action.

Utah Tech is led in scoring by Ethan Potter, who transferred to St. George for his senior season after spending three years at Utah Valley. Potter is averaging 13.6 points per game in conference play and 15.8 overall this season. The Trailblazers rank 7th in the NCAA and second in the WAC holding opponents to shoot 28.7 percent from the three-point line. After starting conference play 2-0 with a home win against SUU and a road victory at ACU. Utah Tech then dropped their next two games on the road. Since then, the have been 7-3 including a six-game winning streak that propelled them to lead the WAC on multiple occasions. The only non-conference common opponent between Utah Tech and Tarleton State was Mississippi Valley State who the Trailblazers defeated by six in 2OT. Head coach Jon Judkins is in his 20th season at Utah Tech where he has 334 wins. Overall, he is in his 32nd season with 638 victories.

The Texans will hit the road for the final time of the regular season next week. Tarleton State will head to Orem for the first time this season with a Thursday night tip set for 7 pm CT. The Texans will wrap up the trip in Riverside with an 8 pm CT tip against CBU on Saturday.