STEPHENVILLE – The Angelo State men's basketball team saw a nine-point lead midway through the first half turn into a 67-44 Lone Star Conference loss to Tarleton State on Wednesday at Wisdom Gym.

The Rams (5-16, 2-11 LSC) have now lost six straight games, while the Texans (13-6, 6-5 LSC) extend their conference-leading win streak to five.

“It was disappointing because we did some good things in the first half,” ASU head coach Fred Rike said. “I thought we lost our composure some when we had the lead. We didn't do a good enough job of reversing the basketball in the second half. Against a good defense like they have, you can't set one ball screen and expect to get in the paint.”

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Jovan Austin led the Rams with 13 points, while Reggie Sutton had a career-high eight rebounds and added two assists. Antonio Dye contributed six points with Dakota Rawls and Justin Walling scoring five each for the Rams.  

Tarleton State went on 22-4 run in the final eight minutes of the first half and first 4:48 of the second half before Sutton hit a layup with 15:12 to play to pull the Rams to within 32-25. Sutton's layup was followed by back-to-back 3-pointers by Chuck Guy to push TSU's lead to 38-25 with 14:04 to play.

Dye hit a 3-pointer to take the score to 19-10 with 8:15 remaining in the first half, but the Rams would go scoreless until Austin hit two free throws with 1:29 to tie the game at 21. ASU and the Texans would go into halftime with the score still at 21-all.

Austin leads the Rams with seven points at halftime and ASU led TSU 23-14 in the rebounding category. The Texans outrebounded the Rams 17-4 in the second half and shot 48 percent in the game compared the Rams' 30 percent. ASU's 44 points matched a season low that was previously set in a loss to West Texas A&M in December. The Rams were limited to 4 of 17 shooting from behind the 3-point line, while Tarleton State went 5 of 11.

Guy led the Texans with 23 points and four rebounds, while Jon Cathey-Macklin and Brian Word each had eight points. Cathey-Macklin, who was named the LSC's Defensive Player of the Week on Monday, added seven rebounds and a block as TSU improved to 12-2 on its home court.

Angelo State and Tarleton State split their season series after the Rams won the first meeting 57-52 on Dec. 5 in San Angelo. ASU leads the all-time series 35-30.

Angelo State returns to action at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday against Texas A&M-Commerce and will also host Cameron at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Stephens Arena in the Junell Center. The Rams are 5-5 at home and 0-11 on the road this season.