STEPHENVILLE – Tarleton State Men’s Basketball evened the season series in front of a raucous and sold-out Wisdom Gym crowd with a 67-52 victory over Abilene Christian on Thursday night.
The Texans (12-17 overall, 7-7 WAC) are in sole possession of third place in the WAC after Thursday’s slate of games. The Wildcats (14-14, 6-7) find themselves tied with CBU and Seattle U for fourth place, a half-game behind Tarleton State for the third seed in the WAC Tournament.
“He’s one in a hundred million,” said head coach Billy Gillispie about Freddy Hicks postgame. “He’s a really good kid and an honor to coach. All the fans love him here.”
Bubu Benjamin led the team with 16 points, 13 of those coming in the second half. Benjamin also added six boards and tied for the team lead with two blocks, his third two-block game this season. The sophomore made his only attempt from three-point territory and shot seven-for-11 from the floor.
Freddy Hicks scored 13 points and a team-high eight rebounds. He dished out four assists while adding a block in 33 minutes of action, his most this season. Hicks shot 50 percent from the floor, five-for-ten. He needs just eight more points to record 1,000 points in his Texan career, the first Texan in the D1 era to accomplish the feat.
“It means a lot for the team,” said Hicks on the victory. “We have been struggling a little bit and we are trying to get some momentum heading into the tournament. We play one game at a time and give it our best. The crowd helps us a lot and we appreciate everyone who puts their support in us, without them we couldn’t do what we do.”
Chris Mpaka scored 12 points with all of them coming in the first half. He added three boards and two blocks. Four of his points came from the free throw line with the other eight via two dunks, an alley-oop and a lay-up.
Jordan Mizell dished out a game-best six assists. He also added six points and six boards. Dantwan Grimes was the fourth Texan to score in double figures. The junior notched 11 points to go along with two rebounds, two assists and a steal. He shot a perfect five-for-five from te charity stripe.
Benjamin got the Texans on the board with the first bucket of the game. ACU led early using an 8-4 start to the contest. Mizell cut the Texan deficit to two after scooping up a defensive rebound and taking it coast to coast for the lay-in just over three minutes into the game. The Wildcats ran a pair of buckets in a row to take a 12-6 led, then it was the Mpaka show.
Mpaka brought down the house for the first time on the night with a massive dunk from the hands of Hicks. The junior needed just one hand and brought up the energy of Texan nation. He followed his dunk with a layup just a minute later to cut the deficit down to 14-12. Mpaka scored his sixth-straight Texan point with an alley-oop that sent the student section into pandemonium. Grimes flipped him a pass from the near three-point land and Mpaka slammed it home with even more enthusiasm than his solo dunk.
That was all the momentum the Texans needed. On the very next possession after a Wildcat turnover, Grimes drove through traffic to make the bucket and pick up the foul. He converted the classic three-point play to give the Texans the lead they would never surrender. Grimes made his fifth consecutive point on a layup just 50 ticks later.
Mpaka wasn’t done with his crowd-erupting dunks. The forward sent the crowd into hysteria for the third time with another one-handed slam. This time, the feed came from Mizell, to put the Texans up five on a 7-0 run. Grimes completed the 9-0 Texan run with a pair of made free throws to give Tarleton a 21-14 advantage with 10:44 to go.
After ACU brought its deficit down to four, the Texans used a 5-0 run to bring it back to nine. Three free throws from Benjamin and Mpaka started the run. Then Mpaka blocked an ACU layup, where Benjamin sent an outlet pass to Izzy Miles who laid it in on the fast break to bring the Texan lead back to nine, 26-17.
With three minutes remaining in the first half. Hicks sunk his second triple of the season off a pass from Mpaka. On the very next possession, Miles grabbed a steal and took off downcourt and found Hicks who brought down the house with a dunk of his own. Miles found Hicks with a behind-the-back pass to set up Hicks for the flush. Keitenn Bristow gave the Texans their biggest lead of the half, 14 off a classic three-point play. Tarleton held the advantage into the break, 37-25.
The second 20 minutes, fared just as well for the Texans. Grimes scored first for the Texans, but was followed up by an ACU bucket, Then Hicks added another basket, but the Wildcats responded with two points of their own. The trend continued over the first six minutes of the second session with the Texans leading, 44-31.
Trailing by 13, ACU cut into its deficit with a mini 7-0 run across the next 70 seconds to bring the Texan lead down to six, their smallest of the second half. But, the Purple and White ran on their own 7-0 burst to lead 53-40 at the halfway point. Hicks scored on a lay-in and then Benjamin accounted for the next five. After a layup in traffic with help from Mizell, Benjamin sank a triple from the top of the arc as the shot clock expired.
Leading 55-45 with 8:40 to go, Tarleton State ballooned their lead to 19 with just under four minutes remaining on a 12-3 run. Benjamin accounted for four points while Hicks, Grimes, Mizell and Bristow each added two. Hicks found Bristow open on the other side of the court for a full court pass and Bristow dunk. This spurt pushed the Texans to a 67-48 lead with 3:16 left in the contest. Tarleton did not score in the remained of the game and held ACU to four points across the final three minutes. The Texans evened the season series and won their fourth-straight contest against the Wildcats in Wisdom Gym, 67-52.
The Texans won the battle of the boards, 37-23. In a battle of the top two teams in the country in forced turnovers, the boys from Stephenville won, forcing 19 while committing 16. Tarleton was called for just 11 fouls, its fewest as a team this season. The Texans got the job done in the paint outscoring the Wildcats, 44-28.
Tarleton State will get its final Saturday off day, before embarking on its final road game of the season next week. The Texans will travel to California Baptist next week to take on the Lancers at 9 pm CT at the Dale E. and Sarah Ann Fowler Events Center on Thursday night.
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