BOX SCORE: No. 4 Tarleton State 72, Angelo State 64
SAN ANGELO – No. 4 Tarleton State became only the second road team to win against the Angelo State men's basketball team in the Junell Center this season by claiming a 72-64 Lone Star Conference victory over the Rams on Wednesday in front of a season-high 3,000 fans in attendance.
ASU (16-6, 6-4 LSC) was limited to 35.8 percent shooting in the game and was outscored 44-20 in the paint by the Texans (20-1, 9-1 LSC) who remain atop the conference standings with four games remaining in the regular season. The Rams find themselves back in a tie for third in the standings with Eastern New Mexico which was a 72-61 winner over Cameron on Wednesday in Lawton, Okla.
Angelo State returns to action with two road games, first on Saturday at Texas A&M-Commerce before playing at Midwestern State next Wednesday. ASU will host its final home game of the season on Saturday, Feb. 22 against Cameron.
TSU led 30-28 at halftime after being up by as many as 11 in the first half and the Rams tied the game at 30 on a
Kenny Williams jumper 19 seconds into the second half. The Texans responded to the tied game with a 9-0 run over the next two minutes and didn't relinquish the lead the remainder of the night. ASU, which is now 10-2 at home this season, would get to as close as five with a pair of
Chantz Chambers free throws with 1:33 to play (63-58) and it was 65-60 after another Williams jumper with 55 seconds left. TSU hit six consecutive free throws in the final minute to hold off any chance of a comeback by the Rams.
Kenny Williams recorded his conference-leading ninth double-double of the season with 14 points and 12 rebounds for the Rams. Williams also led the Rams with two blocked shots and two steals in the game and now has 19 blocked shots and is averaging 17.7 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.
Bryan Hammond led the Rams with a season-high 21 points and added four assists, while
Chris Talkington went for 11 points and seven rebounds. It was Hammond's third 20-point performance in the past four games.
At the free-throw line, Talkington went 5-for-5,
Tommy Woolridge 6-for-6 and Hammond scored six of his points on seven attempts from the line. Woolridge finished the game with eight points and four rebounds. ASU went 24-for-30 from the free-throw line (80 percent) as a team, while Tarleton State was 13-for-25 (52 percent) on its free-throw attempts. TSU, which leads the LSC in 3-pointers this season, struggled from long range by going 3-for-18 from beyond the arc. Those struggles were matched by ASU which went 2-for-13 (15.4 percent) on its 3-point attempts. The Rams were even with TSU with 41 rebounds each, but had 14 turnovers to the Texans' seven. The Texans outscored the Rams 18-5 on points off turnovers.
De'Andre Upchurch led Tarleton State with 19 points, while Chuck Guy added 18 points, seven assists and eight rebounds. Davene Carter was also in double figures with 10 points and contributed seven rebounds for the Texans who host Texas A&M-Kingsville on Saturday.
Angelo State trailed by as many as 11 in the first half with the Texans leading 27-16 with 5:21 remaining in the first half. The Rams went on a 5-0 run with a layup and free throw by Talkington followed by a pair of free throws by Woolridge. ASU's deficit was trimmed to five with Talkington hitting a pair of free throws with 1:27 remaining in the half and the Rams cut it to two with Hammond hitting a layup and a free throw.
Hammond led the Rams with seven points at halftime, while Woolridge had six points and two rebounds and Williams had six rebounds and five points. ASU was limited to 33.3 percent shooting in the first ahlf and went 1-for-5 on 3-pointers. The Texans, who were led by Upchurch who had nine points, shot 40.6 percent from the field and 2-for-13 on 3-pointers (15.4 percent).
