SAN ANGELO – Two of the top teams in the Lone Star Conference will meet at 8 p.m. on Wednesday when the Angelo State men's basketball team hosts No. 4 Tarleton State at Stephens Arena in the Junell Center.
ASU (16-5, 6-3 LSC) enters the game on a two-game winning streak after topping West Texas A&M (69-47) and Eastern New Mexico (77-75) last week. The Texans (19-1, 8-1 LSC) took their first loss of the season last Wednesday in a 77-75 overtime loss to Midwestern State before bouncing back with a 75-74 overtime victory at Cameron. TSU's two overtime games last week were its first two of the season that went past regulation. The Texans are in first place in the conference standings, while the Rams are in third just a game back of Midwestern State.
The Rams, who are 10-1 at home this season, possess a 35-31 all-time advantage in the series after the first meeting this season and the two teams splitting games last season. Wednesday's game is a "Whiteout" with fans being encouraged to wear white shirts to help support the Rams and ticket prices have been reduced to $1. Students receive free admission with their ASU One Card.
COACH QUOTES: Angelo State head coach
Chris Beard
On playing against Tarleton State on Wednesday at the Junell Center:
"We have a lot of respect for Tarleton State. In a lot of ways, they are the kind of program that we are trying to build here at Angelo State. Obviously, they kicked us pretty good in the first game in January, but our focus has always been to try and improve daily. So I'm looking forward to seeing how much we've improved since the first game against Tarleton. I think Wednesday night will be a great measuring stick."
On the mentality facing Tarleton State after the loss against the Texans in the first meeting:
"I'm a lot of things, but intimidated is not one of them."
Click this video for more comments:
 Â
ASU, TSU Round 1: The Rams led by as many as 13 points in the first half, but fell 80-54 after being outscored 42-18 in the second half in the first game between the two teams this season on Jan. 8 in Stephenville at Wisdom Gym.
Kenny Williams led the Rams with 25 points and 10 rebounds, while
Chris Talkington had nine points and eight rebounds and
Omari Gudul had seven rebounds. Chuck Guy led TSU with 24 points and seven rebounds. ASU was outscored 38-14 in points in the paint and was limited to 31.6 percent shooting.
Â
ANGELO STATE RAM REPORT (16-5, 6-3 LSC)
The Rams have won six of their last eight games and are coming off victories over West Texas A&M and Eastern New Mexico. It is the third time ASU has won back-to-back games and it is looking to win three LSC games in a row for the first time since the 2008-09 season when the Rams ran off five consecutive conference wins.
ASU enters the game averaging 75.1 points per game throughout the season and 71.8 points per conference game. Defensively, the Rams have limited opponents to 69.0 points per game through 21 games and LSC opponents have been held to 68.9 points per game. ASU's top defensive performances this season have come against Oklahoma Wesleyan and West Texas A&M when the Rams held each opponent to 47 points in wins. The team is 11 games over .500 after shooting 48.3 percent from the field and limiting the opposition to a conference-leading 40 percent shooting. They are also outrebounding their counterparts 788-689 and have a 300-237 assists advantage. Turnovers are basically even with ASU holding a slight 326-324 turnover advantage.
The Rams are shooting 34.8 percent on 3-pointers (104 of 299) this season and 65 percent from the free-throw line (360 of 546). In LSC play, ASU is shooting 69 from the free-throw line on 220 attempts. The opposition has 237-230 advantage going to the free-throw line, but ASU has made two more free throws in through nine LSC games.
RAM RUNDOWN
Kenny Williams continues to lead the Rams and the Lone Star Conference with 17.9 points per game and eight double-doubles. Williams is coming off a 22 point, 10 rebound performance against ENMU last Saturday and has scored in double digits in 20 of 21 games this season and has score 20 or more points 10 times this season. In LSC play, the senior from St. Louis is averaging 17.9 points and 8.1 rebounds per game. His rebounding average is second in the conference and he is tied with teammate
Ryan Marsh with 17 blocked shots for the team lead. He also leads ASU with 27 steals this season and is shooting 47.5 percent from the field. He scored a season-high 28 points in the season-opener against East Central and grabbed a season-high 15 rebounds against ENMU in an overtime game in Portles, N.M. Williams has been selected as one of the top under-the-radar dunkers in the nation by College Slam. Voting is open for the first round of the online competition with fans voting once a day for their favorite dunker. Fans can go to
www.facebook.com/CollegeSlam to vote. The winner of the bracket-style competition advances to compete in the national slam dunk contest at the NCAA Final Four in Dallas on April 3rd. The dunk contest will be aired on ESPN.
Bryan Hammond, a senior from New Orleans, leads Angelo State with 93 assists this season and is second on the team with 11.0 points per game. Hammond is averaging 12.7 points per game in conference play, including scoring 20 points against Texas A&M-Kingsville and West Texas A&M earlier this month. He is coming off an 11 point, four-assist performance against ENMU last Saturday and is fifth in the LSC with 4.4 assists per game. Hammond has scored in double digits 11 times this season. His season highlight came when he hit the game-winner against A&M-Commerce with four seconds remaining in the game and his 20 points against the Javelinas and Buffs are his season-high in points and he had eight assists against McMurry and Cameron.
Tommy Woolridge leads the Rams with 32 3-pointers this season and is averaging 9.2 points per game. A Chicago native, he's a two-time LSC Offensive Player of the Week and has scored in double digits nine times this season. He went for a season-high 32 points at Cameron for the most points by a Ram this season when he went 6-for-6 from beyond the arc. He has also contributed 24 assists and 19 steals in his first year at ASU. Â
Daniel Skinner, a junior from Dallas also in his first year at ASU, is averaging 5.1 rebounds per game and 7.7 points per game. He is second on the team with 107 total rebounds and has 14 games of five or more rebounds this season. Skinner secured six rebounds last Saturday against ENMU and recorded a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds earlier this season against York College.
Omari Gudul is coming off his second double-double of the season after he went for 14 points and 10 rebounds against ENMU last Saturday. A sophomore from the Congo, Gudul is in his first season at ASU after playing last season at Ranger College. He is averaging 4.8 points and 4.1 rebounds this season and has also contributed eight blocked shots. He had a season-high two blocked shots against ENMU to go along with his season-high 14 points. His first double-double of his career came in a 13 point, 12-rebound performance against York College on Nov. 16. Fellow sophomores
Reggie Sutton and
Thomas Brandsma have added depth and contributions for the Rams all season with Sutton coming off scoring eight points against ENMU. Sutton is averaging 5.2 points and 2.5 rebounds per game, while Brandsma is at 3.4 points and 2.5 rebounds per game. Sutton and Hammond lead the Rams by shooting 75 percent from the free-throw line.
Chris Talkington, a senior from Grand Prairie who transferred to ASU after playing his first two seasons at Nicholls State with Hammond, is second on the team with 23 3-pointers this season. He's averaging 7.2 points and 2.2 rebounds per game.
Chantz Chambers is adding 4.9 points and 1.4 rebounds per game as a freshman. Chambers, who will also compete in the long jump for the ASU Track & Field team, has scored in double digits four times this season and is coming off scoring five points against ENMU. His season-high came in a 13-point effort against Northern New Mexico on Nov. 22.
Â
TARLETON STATE TEXAN REPORT (19-1, 8-1 LSC)
The Texans travel west to San Angelo as the conference leaders with an 8-1 LSC record following suffering their first defeat of the season in a 77-75 overtime loss to Midwestern State last Wednesday in Stephenville and then hanging on to win a 75-74 overtime contest on Saturday at Cameron. TSU is averaging 87.7 points per game and is limiting opponents to 64.1 points per game – both of which lead the conference.
Tarleton also leads the conference by shooting 49.7 percent from the field, fewest turnovers (211), free throws made (450), free-throw percentage (73.3), scoring margin (23.6), 3-pointers per game (8.6) and of course won-lost percentage. Among the national leaders, TSU is second in scoring margin, eighth in scoring defense, 13th in free throws made and seventh in turnover margin (5.3). They are in the top-five of every statistical category in the department on both sides of the ball.
Chuck Guy leads the Texans with 16.2 points per game and 117 assists this season and has also contributed 32 steals and 3.0 rebounds per game. A senior from Fort Worth, Guy started his career at Arkansas-Little Rock before moving back to Texas to play for the Texans. He currently ranks fourth in the conference in scoring and leads the LSC with 5.9 assists per game and 113 free throws made.
De'Andre Upchurch is second on the team in scoring with 15.1 points per game and is shooting 46.1 percent from the field, 40 percent on 3-pointers (54-for-134) and 86 percent from the free-throw line (57-for-66). A senior from Michigan, Upchurch is in his second season with the Texans and has started every game alongside Guy, Davene Carter, Coleman Furst and Jon Cathey-Macklin.
Carter is fourth on the team with 9.6 points per game and leads TSU with 6.2 rebounds per game. He's a junior from Duncanville and is shooting a staggering 69 percent from the field on 116 shots. Furst, another senior in the starting lineup, is a Denison native who is scoring 4.7 points per game and has also contributed 21 assists. Cathey-Macklin, the tallest Texan who has played this season, stands at 6-foot-9 and is averaging 4.2 rebounds and 2.2 points per game in his senior season.
A deep team, like most nationally ranked rosters are, Tashawn Mabry leads a group of reserves with 11.7 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. Mohammed Lee is at 8.4 points and 2.4 rebounds per game, while Emmanuel Andrews has scored 7.3 points per game off the bench. Damion Clemons and Michael Hardge just add to Lonn Reisman's arsenal with 5.6 points per game as reserves.Â
The Texans will host Texas A&M-Kingsville on Saturday at Wisdom Gym after playing the Rams.
