STEPHENVILLE – The Angelo State men's basketball team opened the 2018-19 season on the right foot Friday afternoon, defeating the University of the Southwest 85-68 in the Tarleton Classic.
The Rams got the win to start the regular season for the eighth straight year while limiting the Mustangs to just a 45% field goal percentage in the game.
ASU started slowly in the first few minutes as the Mustangs, already a week into their season, got four quick points before a free throw from James Kirksey got the Rams on the scoreboard.
The Rams quickly took the lead on a layup from newcomer Josh Boutte for the first two of his many points on the afternoon. Boutte, playing in his first game with the Rams after transferring from the Sam Houston State, scored a game-high 26 points in 22 minutes on the floor and pulled down eight rebounds as well.
For the first 10 minutes of the game, the University of the Southwest kept the game close, never falling behind by more than seven points and cutting the deficit to one point several times. ASU finally pushed the lead to the double-digit mark with less than five minutes less to play in the half after layups by Boutte and Kirksey put them up 11.
A jumper by Ronald Bell, the Rams second best scorer, pushed it to 13, and Daron Mims got a fastbreak layup in the paint to get the lead all the way out to 15 before the halftime buzzer sounded.
Bell finished with 20 points in his first game as a Ram, and he and Boutte together were a big reason that ASU got 52 of their 85 points in the paint.
In the second half, the Mustangs started clicking more offensively, and the Rams only outscored them by two in the half. Southwest could never close the gap, however, as timely buckets from Bell and Valentine Sangoyomi kept the lead in the double-digits the entire final 20 minutes.
Sangoyomi and Mims were the only other two Rams to finish in double-figures in the game, as Kirksey was one point shy, but did lead the team with 6 assists.
The Rams will play one more game in the Tarleton Classic, taking on UC-Colorado Springs at 2 p.m. on Saturday in Stephenville.
