By BRAD KEITH
TheFlashToday.com
FRISCO (March 3, 2018) — Nine days, 180 degrees and a 54-point swing in second-half scoring.
Other than those little details – and the exact opposite result – there wasn’t much different about the way the match-ups unfolded.
Tarleton State enjoyed a 35-4 run over the first 12 minutes of the second half in a regular season contest against Texas-Permian Basin on February 22 in Stephenville.
Everything for Tarleton went right as the Texans grounded the Falcons, outscoring them 51-19 in the second half of a 78-54 win.
But in the semifinal round of the Lone Star Conference Championship Saturday, everything went right for No. 2 seed UTPB, which dominated the backboards and used quick outlet passes to set off its running game, scoring easy buckets before the tough Tarleton zone could get set.
Not set, or comfortable in any sense, is just how Tarleton looked in the second half, while the Falcons were operating squarely within their wheelhouse, running, gunning and letting their guards, especially conference player of the year Daeshon Francis get creative on drives to the bucket and nifty entry passes, usually to big-man Josh Morris, who was referred to by his head coach afterward as the best big man in the LSC.
The Falcons soared to a 83-55 win, landing them in the tournament final with a shot at defending their 2017 championship. They face No. 1 seed and regular season conference champ West Texas A&M at 3:30 p.m. Sunday. WTAMU beat Texas A&M-Commerce 73-63 in the later semifinal that closed out the Saturday slate with everything on schedule and seeming to operate smoothly after some games were delayed a full day because of a leak inn the roof that was allowing rainwater to trickle onto the court during women’s quarterfinal action Thursday.
UTPB, the No. 2 seed as 2017-18 LSC runner-up, outscored Tarleton 31-10 over the first 12 minutes of the second half at Dr Pepper Arena, and ultimately owned the second half by a 44-20 margin in a 83-55 rout.
Barring a significant regional rankings shakeup, Tarleton will most likely be left on the outside peering in at the 64-team NCAA Division II Championship field for the first time since 2009 and only the third time since its debut appearance in 2002.
The Texans won 11 of their previous 14 contests, and had the look of a top eight team in the South Central Region throughout February, when Reisman became the fifth active Division II coach to reach 650 career wins with a victory at Angelo State.
If year 30 for Reisman at Tarleton is indeed complete, his team finishes one victory short of an eighth straight 20-win campaign. The Texans recorded 20 or more wins in 14 of the past 16 seasons and 18 times under Reisman.
UTPB knows it’s going to the playoffs regardless of what happens tomorrow. The Falcons also know there is a shot they will host the regional tournament in Odessa with a win.
They certainly had the look of a top regional seed Saturday against a young, rapidly improving Texan team. And that was a welcome sight, especially to Falcon head coach Andy Newman after pacing the bench and enduring a pair of ugly losses at Tarleton and A&M-Commerce in the final week of the regular season, which began with them tied along side WTAMU for first place and ended with them staring up at the Buffs and unable to repeat as conference champions.
If the Falcons expect Sunday to produce a different result, they will need another vintage performance from Francis, who despite banging his knee and head when gravity ultimately prevailed at the end of an acrobatic layup in which the back-to-back LSC Player of the Year leaped over a teammate, banked in a shot after catching a pass in mid-air, then landed hard.
Even while having a wound in his right eyebrow treated and bandaged behind the Falcon bench, Francis was shown love by the Falcon faithful, gathered 5-plus hours from home and chanting MVP throughout the stoppage.
One young reporter along press row, mocked the cheer by saying ‘Chav-lo-vich,’ referring to David Chavlovich, the last conference player of the year before Fancis transferred to UTPB and the Falcons migrated to the LSC from the Heartland.
Chavlovich has also been in peak form lately, and their head’s up performance on Sunday comes in the first final to be played between the tournament’s top two seeds since Tarleton knocked off Midwestern in 2014.
Francis had 21 points, 11 rebounds and six assists in the semifinal, while Morris matched him with 21 points and 11 boards in them 38-14 in the paint.
Newman and Reisman both listed rebounds as a key difference maker in the game. Reisman felt the 23-16 rebound margin in the first half was the primary reason the Falcons led 39-35 at intermission, outweighing their 10-10 performance from the foul stripe and 20 minutes of turnover-free basketball.
Tarleton’s way of withstanding such a disciplined, polished first half was by hitting threes and blocking shots. The Texans were 8-18 from the arc and amassed nine blocked shots in the opening half five of those by 6-8 leaper Josh Hawley. He was about the only Texan in peak form, scoring 19 points on 8-11 shooting including 3-5 from the arc while collecting 7 blocks and 6 boards.
It all went downhill in the second half, when the Exans were just 1-10 from the arc and blocked only two shots. The Falcons scored more points than Tarleton allowed in a game since the calendar flipped to 2018.
UTPB finally committed its first turnover, a traveling violation, with 15:58 remaining in the game. The Falcons finished with just three turnovers the fewest by a Tarleton opponent going back to 2004-05, the earliest season with stats published to TarletonSports.com. The only turnover record referenced in the Texan basketball media guide is most in turnovers committed in one game by Tarleton.
And it wasn’t as if UTPB was trying to slow the pace or work off isolation plays. On the contrary, the Falcons were all about ball movement, especially following defensive rebounds. They had 18 assists, twice as many as the Texans.
Three Falcons scored at least as many as Hawley, including James McPherson, who had 13 of his 19 in the second half. He hit three of his five triples after intermission, including bombs on consecutive possessions during the opening stages of the decisive run.
Tarleton missed quick shots at the other end after each, and it soon began snowballing, just like – as both coaches points out – it did in Tarleton’s favor nine days prior, which Newman called an embarasment.
Reisman felt pretty much the same way concerning his team’s second half performance this time around. He said rebounding was why the Falcons held the edge at the break, as well as what fueled their high-octane attack in the second half.
Tarleton held UTPB to 35 percent shooting in the first half, but that number increased to 46 percent after the break. The Texans, meanwhile, dropped form 43 percent to 35 while suffering their widest margin of defeat since a 83-49 loss at A&M-Commerce on February 17, 2001. That season – 2000-01 – marked the last time Tarleton did not have a winning record, as he Texans were an even 13-13. Their only losing record of 11-16 came in 1995-96, their first season competing in the NCAA and LSC.
Deshawn Riddick had a frustrating final contest, going just 2-13 from the floor including 1-7 from the arc, where he hovered at or near 50 percent much of the season.
Riddick and Nosa Ebomwonyi are the only seniors the Texans are set to lose at the end their 30th season under Reisman.
The bevy of returning players is highlighted by Hawley, just a sophomore, and Corinthian Ramsey, who scored 13 points and dealt four assists in the final game as a junior. The other starters scheduled to return are freshman guard Sam Marshall and junior forward Jaraan Lands. True freshman guard Preston Enloe started some early in the season and had six double-digit performances a year after being a 6A district MVP at Hebron High School.
Anthony Davis was not the impact player everyone expected a sophomore but has an off-season now to try and refocus that before his final two campaigns. Just a season ago he was named LSC Freshman of the Year.
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