STEPHENVILLE — Tarleton State Men’s Basketball extended its winning streak to five games with a 92-56 defeat of Hardin-Simmons on Tuesday night in Wisdom Gym.
The Texans (7-2 overall, 2-0 WAC) improve their longest winning streak of the D1 era and move to 3-0 at home this season. Tarleton now owns the all-time series with the Cowboys (5-3, 2-0 ASC), 5-4, after playing for the first time in 31 years.
Lue Williams led the squad in scoring posting 16, in just 16 minutes of action. KiAndre Gaddy and Jakorie Smith also posted double-figure scoring totals with 13 apiece.
The Texans saw 13 different players take the floor with 12 recording at least a bucket. Adam Moussa led the team with three assists in nearly 18 minutes off the bench. Traivar Jackson posted a career-high seven points and led the team with a pair of blocks. Bubu Benjamin led the Texans with six boards and added eight points including a behind the back reverse slam dunk in the second half. The Tarleton bench contributed for 37 points, the most this season.
The Texans jumped out to an early 6-0 lead in the first minute of the game. The Cowboys executed their biggest run of the night with a 7-0 burst to take their first lead of the contest, 16-15. Tarleton would swap buckets but used an 11-0 run to pull out to a 44-28 lead.
Williams led the Texans in the first half with 14. As a unit, the squad shot 18-for-36 from the floor, a 50 percent clip. The Cowboys three-point shooting kept them close knocking down seven from the beyond the arc at a 50 percent rate.
The Texans picked back up where they left off coming out of the locker room in the second half. Tarleton scored the first 11 points after the intermission to take a 59-33 lead with 17:14 remaining in the game.
The Cowboys were unable to get back on track after the first three minutes and were nearly doubled by the Texans in the second half, 44-23.
Tarleton made 18 buckets again in the second half, but this time at a 58.1 clip. The Texan defense forced the Cowboys to shot two-for-eight in the half from beyond the arc.
The Texans shot 54.5 percent from the floor improving their record to 26-0 in the D1 era when shooting 50 percent or better. The Purple and White forced 24 turnovers while committing only half. The Texans won the battle of the boards, 40-28 and posted 18 steals. The Cowboys tallied eight blocks in the contest.
Tarleton State will continue its four-game homestand with a match-up against Sterling College on Dec. 12 at 7 p.m. The contest will be streamed on ESPN+.
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