By BRAD KEITH
TheFlashToday.com
(February 25, 2017) — For the first time since Lonn Reisman came to Tarleton State in 1988, the Texans have lost three straight games to end a regular season.
And with UT-Permian Basin winning its last four, the Texans’ 2.5 game lead just two weeks ago is gone, and instead of celebrating a fifth Lone Star Conference championship in Stephenville, nets were cut in Odessa Saturday with UTPB winning the LSC title in its first year of membership in one of the premier Division II basketball conferences in the nation.
Tarleton (22-6, 13-5) is in the midst of a three-game losing streak for the first time in more than four years following a 74-65 loss at West Texas A&M (24-7, 12-6) Saturday. The last time Tarleton lost three in a row was part of a four-game losing streak from January 5-16, 2013.
That year, Tarleton went on to win the LSC Championship tournament. This year’s event begins Thursday and concludes next Sunday at Allen Event Center, where Tarleton won titles in 2013 and 2014. The Texans, the No. 2 seed in the event, face No. 7 Angelo State at 2:30 p.m. Thursday.
WTAMU finished 15-0 at home this season and is the No. 3 seed in the LSC Championship. The Buffs finished the regular season third and face No. 6 Texas A&M-Kingsville at 2:30 p.m. Friday.
Anthony Davis scored the first five points for Tarleton Saturday, but West Texas A&M led the rest of the way after taking an 11-9 lead on a layup by All-American David Chavlovich, who led all scorers with 18.
That was part of a 17-4 WTAMU run that put the Buffs in control for pretty much the rest of the way. Jordan Evans hit two 3-pointers to get the Buffs on the board and begin the run by giving them a 6-5 lead. The run concluded with back-to-back 3-pointers by Joseph Prince, who scored 10 points off the bench. Ryan Quaid, a sophomore also came off the bench to score 15 and grab seven rebounds for WT, while Eric Golightly, Jr. scored 11 and dealt seven assists.
Tarleton closed the gap to 22-18 on a layup and 3-pointer for five straight points from Chantz Chambers, who led the Texans with 16 points, six boards, three steals and two assists. He played all but two minutes, as did Deshawn Riddick, who scored 13. Davis finished with 15 and two blocked shots, but the redshirt freshman also turned the ball over five times.
West Texas A&M led 32-28 at intermission and stretched the advantage to 43-32 on a Golightly, Jr. 3-pointer with 16:36 to play. Tarleton got as close as eight before a Chavlovich jumper pushed it to 49-36 with a little more than three minutes later.
A Carl White 3-pointer made it 59-45 with 7:38 remaining. The Buffs were 10-28 from the arc, outscoring Tarleton 30-15 from long range. The Texans were just 5-19 shooting treys.
The Texans got as close as 72-65, but that was with only 36 seconds remaining.
Tarleton, which lose its spot atop the South Central Region rankings, has struggled since losing Josh Hawley. They won their next two games, but had a six-game win streak snapped at A&M-Commerce last week, then lost at UT-Permian Basin on Thursday.
Hawley, who suffered a broken foot, is the third significant injury for the Texans,who were without Stephen Edwards for a long spell after he suffered a knee injury. He spent the first third of the season as the No. 2 point guard behind Riddick. Denzel Smith, one of the team’s best weapons off the bench, suffered a season-ending knee injury in December.
Tarleton will be happy just to see a neutral court in Allen after three straight road games against three of the top five teams in the South Central Region. Not that facing ASU will be any kind of cakewalk. Tarleton blew out the Rams, 92-60, in San Angelo, but that was while Prince Foster was injured. Foster returned and took over the point guard role for ASU, and the Rams beat A&M-Commerce by 14 on the road before losing in Stephenville by just five on WatchESPN.
ASU dressed only eight players on the road this week, losing to Eastern New Mexico and edging Western New Mexico, 79-73, on Saturday to keep its season alive. The Rams were part of a three-team race of the final two seeds in the LSC Championship. The Rams and ENMU finished in a three-way tie with Midwestern State. ASU had the best record between the three for the No. 7 seed, and in a head’s up tie-breaker, MSU topped ENMU by virtue of the beating conference champ UTPB.
UTPB faces Midwestern in the first round of the LSC Championship. The winner gets No. 4 seed Texas A&M-Commerce or No. 5 Cameron in the semifinals.
Be the first to comment