ALLEN, Texas – The No. 11/22 Angelo State Basketball team advances to the Lone Star Conference Championship Tournament finals for the second consecutive year after defeating Tarleton State, 81-73, in the Allen Events Center on Friday afternoon.

With the semifinal win the Rams improved to 20-25 in the Lone Star Conference Tournament and 5-2 in the Allen Event Center. This also marks the eighth time that Angelo State will make an appearance in the LSC tournament finals. The Rams offense had three players score in double-figures. As a team it shot 45.3 percent from the field and 81.3 percent from the charity stripe. The Rams gained 16 to the Texans 12 points off of turnovers and outscored TSU, 12-10, on second chance points.

"Our players fought extremely hard tonight," commented Head Coach Cinco Boone. "I can't say enough about our seniors and especially the energy that Stedman Allen provided in the second half. We have been able to keep our composer all year long and credit to our guys maintaining that attitude."

With 3:24 left in the game and trailing 71-70, senior Tre Bennett swished a pair of free throws to jump start the Rams final push to victory. These were the first two points in an 11-2 run by ASU that consisted of only free throws. Angelo State came out of the break tied with the Texans at 30 apiece and seniors Omari Gudul and Bennett pushed the Rams ahead by six hitting a trifecta of shots from the field.  After a Tarleton 2-pointer and with the score 36-32, the Rams continued to pull away adding nine more points to the 15-4 ASU run. The squad took its greatest lead of the night over Tarleton State when Quay King sunk a three pointer from NBA range that pushed the score to 61-48 at the 9:26 mark.

The Rams took an early, 4-2, lead in the first as Gudul hit two shots from the paint. With the score 6-5 in favor of TSU at the 14:36 mark, Prince Foster dropped in a free throw that kicked off a 10-2 run that regained the lead for ASU. This run also saw an authoritative dunk by big man Thomas Tshikaya and a pair of threes from Bennett. The two teams traded leads until Stedman Allen knocked down a jumper from inside the arc to bring the score back to even at 24 with fewer than three minutes left. DeVonte' Pratt would take the team into the half rolling in a layup to tie the game back up at 30.

Bennett led the Rams top offense scoring 19 points for his 19^th consecutive game scoring in double-figures. The senior out of Houston was 5-of-12 from the field, 3-of-8 from the arc and 6-of-7 from the stripe. The point guard led the team with five assists. He also added three boards and a steal to the team's defensive efforts.

Gudul (14) and King (13) also made double-digit point contributions to the ASU offensive attack. This marked the fourth time in the past seven games Gudul has marked double-figure points. The native of the Democratic Republic of Congo was 6-of-9 from the field and was also one of two to lead the team with six boards on the afternoon. King, who was 3-of-7 from the field, 3-of-7 from deep and a perfect 4-of-4 from the foul line, has now hit double-digits in five of the last seven games. The junior out of Atlanta, Georgia also tallied four rebounds and a block for the game.

Solidifying the Rams defense was the junior guard out of Miami, Florida. Foster was also one of two to lead the team with six boards. He also led the squad with two timely blocks and turned in a team third nine points. Finally, Pratt led the Rams in the steals department pocketing a pair for the night.

The Rams will once again take the court in the Allen Events Center on Saturday, March 5 at 5:30 p.m. to face the winner of the Midwestern State and Cameron game. MSU and Cameron will face each other at 8:30 p.m.in the second semifinal game on March 4. The Rams split its regular season series with each of these teams dropping both road games. ASU defeated Cameron, 76-53, in the 2015 LSC quarterfinals and Midwestern State, 66-49, in quarterfinals of the 2015 South Central Regional playoffs.

Saturday's game will be broadcasted live on 1260AM KKSA, with the voice of the Rams, Jeremy Bryant, on the call.