STEPHENVILLE – Led by double-doubles from Richie Mitchell and Josh Hawley, Tarleton men’s basketball got back in the win column with a 79-75 win over UT Permian Basin on Thursday in Wisdom Gym.
The Texans improve to 14-5 overall and 4-4 in the Lone Star Conference while UT Permian Basin falls to 10-8, 3-5.
Mitchell came off the bench and had his best performance as a Texan, posting 15 points and 10 assists – both career highs – with only one turnover in 29 minutes for his first career double-double.
Hawley entered the game averaging a double-double on the season – the only player in the LSC to do so – and was right at his averages, recording a team-high 19 points with 12 rebounds for his LSC-leading 10th double-double of the season and 20th of his career.
The Texans relied on the sharp-shooting sophomore Preston Enloe in the first half, as Enloe came off the bench to score 16 points in the opening frame. With the score tied at 27-27, Enloe gave the boost the Texans needed, scoring nine straight points on three 3-pointers that started an 11-0 run for a 38-27 advantage with 1:18 left in the half. Enloe completed a 4-point play – his fifth first-half 3-pointer – with one second left on the clock that sent the Texans to the locker room up 44-30. Enloe finished with 17 points in 19 minutes with no turnovers.
A 9-0 run Texan run in the opening minutes of the second half pushed the lead to 55-38 when Hawley drilled a 3-pointer at the top of the arc. Hawley scored eight straight points for the largest lead of the game at 19 with 12:48 remaining.
UTPB, who has now lost three straight LSC games, wasn’t about to go down without a fight. The Texans led by 15 with six minutes remaining before the Falcons went on a 20-7 run over the next five minutes to cut the deficit to two. Mitchell converted on his free throws in the final seconds to make it a four-point game and close out the victory at home.
After coming off his first-career double-double last weekend at Eastern New Mexico, Jesse Hill had another all-around performance for the Texans, scoring nine points with eight rebounds and tying a career-high with four blocked shots. Sam Marshall went 6-6 at the free-throw line en route to eight points and Randall Broddie added seven points. Clashon Gaffney (2 points), Brandon Goldsmith (1) and Corinthian Ramsey (1) rounded out the Texan scoring efforts.
The Texans will look to sweep the homestand with a Saturday matchup against Western New Mexico at 4 p.m. in Wisdom Gym.
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