HOUSTON – Faith Acker is a true freshman, but she’s not playing like one.
The Texan freshman center recorded a monster double-double on Saturday in Houston to lead Tarleton State to a 52-40 road win to end 2023. Acker tallied 23 points on 10-of-21 shooting and 12 rebounds to secure her first double-double in her seventh career game. Acker now leads the team in scoring (12.3 PPG), rebounding (7.3 RPG) and blocks (1.3 BPG).
The Texans (4-7, 1-1 WAC) won their second over the past three games and improved to 2-1 on their active four-game road trip, and 3-4 away from Stephenville overall. The Tigers (1-10, 0-0 SWAC) lost their ninth straight game, falling at H&PE Arena in Houston Saturday afternoon.
“I’m really proud of our team’s effort today on the road and bringing home the victory,” head coach Bill Brock said. “We had a four-point lead heading into the fourth quarter and did an outstanding job of rebounding and shot selection to close out the game. Now it’s time to return home and get ready for our trip to UTA on Thursday.”
This was Tarleton’s first game in 12 days due to the holiday break, and their energy was renewed to start, which showed in their smothering defense. They allowed just four points in the first quarter to take a 14-4 lead after one, forcing nine turnovers in the opening frame, along with a Tiger 1-of-13 (.077) clip from the field, 0-of-7 from the three-point line.
Overall, the Texans forced 25 Tiger turnovers, tied for Tarleton’s most takeaways in a game this season. They also forced a 15-of-54 (.278) mark from the floor, a 3-of-22 (.136) performance from distance, and 40 overall points, the lowest totals by an opposing NCAA Division I team all year.
As impressive as the defense was, the individual star on the day was Acker. She is the first Texan freshman to achieve a double-double since Ikpeaku Iwobi notched two in her true freshman season of 2013-14. Acker is the first Texan freshman to post a 20-10 game in at least the last 10 years. She is also the third Texan in their D1 era to post a 20-10 game (Teresa Da Silva in 2022-23, Marissa Escamilla in 2020-21), and is the first Texan to finish with at least 23 points and 12 rebounds since Mackenzie Hailey (March 9, 2019, at Angelo State). Finally, Acker is just the second Texan freshman in their D1 era to score 20 points in a game (Iyana Dorsey twice in 2020-21).
Acker didn’t do it alone on Saturday though, joined by solid outings by a few others. Jakoriah Long tallied 10 points, five assists and three steals, Da Silva chipped in eight points, and Elise Turrubiates finished with six points, six rebounds and two steals.
The Texans built as large as a 14-point lead shortly after their impressive first quarter, going up 18-4, 25-11 and 52-38. The Tigers cut it to nine at halftime 25-16, then used their best quarter of the game in the third to get within three at 34-31. Tarleton led 35-31 entering the fourth quarter and used a 7-0 run to go back up by double figures and never looked back.
No Tiger scored in double figures, led by eight points apiece from reserves Anela Thomas (four rebounds, two steals, two blocks) and Maci Quiller (four rebounds). Jaida Belton tallied four points, nine rebounds, three blocks and eight turnovers for Texas Southern.
The Texans finished non-conference play 3-6, and at 4-7 overall, resume conference play on Thursday at UT Arlington at the College Park Center at 6 p.m.
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