By BRAD KEITH
TheFlashToday.com
STEPHENVILLE (January 20, 2017) — For No. 11 Tarleton State, there was little time to enjoy its domination of No. 12 West Texas A&M Thursday night at Wisdom Gym.
As the Texans were putting the finishing touches on a 91-73 victory – they led 86-60 with two minutes and change remaining – their next opponent, UT-Permian Basin, was completing a signature road win with authority, drubbing talented Texas A&M-Commerce, 84-61.
And the Falcons are up next for the Texans on a short turnaround.
Tarleton (16-2, 7-1), the outright leader in the Lone Star Conference, welcomes upstart UTPB (13-4, 5-3) to Wisdom Gym at 4 p.m. Saturday, following a 2 p.m. women’s contest. The Texans could find themselves head and shoulders above the rest of the conference with a two-game lead at the midway point of LSC play, their lead could be trimmed to one game or they could be tied again with West Texas A&M.
“There is a lot on the line Saturday, and it’s against a very tough opponent,” said Tarleton head coach Lonn Reisman Friday afternoon. “(UTPB) has a lot of momentum right now, and after what they did at Commerce you know they are going to come in here very confident they have what it takes to get another big road win.”
The Falcons certainly have the offensive firepower to get it done. They are the highest scoring team in the LSC at 90.7 points per game, and they have two of the top five individual scorers in the league.
Guards Daeshon Francis and Johnnie Lacy are third and fifth in the league at 18.8 and 17 points per game, respectively.
“Offensively, thy are as good as anyone we’ve faced this season, right up there with Western Washington and West Texas A&M,” said Reisman, whose club beat both those teams as well as Angelo State for a 3-0 mark against ranked opponents. “They have a lot of players who can really score the basketball and they do it with a lot of balance, so you have to play great defense all over the court, not just in one or two spots.”
That includes James McPherson at 13.4 points per game and Josh Morris at 10.8. When they are cranking along with Francis, and Lacy, UTPB is balanced and tough to defend, like on Thursday when they had six double-digit scorers at TAMUC.
Tarleton answers, of course, with double-double machine Romond Jenkins, who 10 times this season has reached double figures in both scoring and rebounding for an average of 12.4 points and a league-leading 11.3 rebounds.
Ridell Camidge averages 16.7 points and is the LSC Offensive Player of the Week after pouring in 22 twice last week. He scored 17 points in just 19 minutes Thursday, when he was limited due to foul trouble. There were 64 fouls called in Thursday’s game and Tarleton set 50-year old school records for makes and attempts from the free throw line at 44-60. Deshawn Riddick was 15-16 and had 19 points. He averages 11 per game, just behind Chantz Chambers at 11.9.
Anthony Davis, usually the fifth starter at power forward for Tarleton, scores 9.5 per game, and Josh Hawley, usually the first player off the bench and the guy who shares minutes with Davis, scores 9.6. Both are redshirt freshmen.
Tarleton has won four straight and UTPB three straight. The Texans are 11-1 at home this season, while UTPB is 1-3 on the road in conference play.
But the one was big, and it gives the Falcons momentum headed to Wisdom Gym, a place Tarleton seemingly never loses.
“This is one of the toughest tests we’ve had this season. They lost a few games early in the conference race, but they are playing very well right now both inside and out,” said Reisman. “We will have to be prepared and we’ll have to execute our game plan very effectively to have a chance to win.”
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