Tarleton’s Trio Helps Texans Roll Buffaloes - Lone Star Conference Skip To Main Content
Patrick Green

Men's Basketball By Nick Eatman

Tarleton’s Trio Helps Texans Roll Buffaloes

One night after Tarleton State saw three players garner All-LSC recognition, the same trio did the bulk of the damage in the Texans’ 89-70 quarterfinal win over West Texas A&M.

      Chuck Guy, De’Andre Upchurch and Tashawn Mabry combined for 62 points as the top-seeded Texans took a close game at halftime and rolled the Buffaloes.

      Tarleton, the defending champions of this tournament, improved to 22-2 and will play Friday night in the semifinals against the winner of Texas A&M-Commerce and Angelo State. TSU is ranked No. 5 in the nation and No. 2 in the South Central Regional rankings, which were released Wednesday.  
      The season ends for the Buffs, who finish the year 10-17 after losing six straight games.

      For a while Wednesday night, West Texas A&M hung around with the Texans, who used a late surge before halftime to lead 49-37. For the majority of the first half, the Buffs were in striking distance.

       But over time, TSU’s Big 3 took over, led by Mabry’s career-high 24 points. The All-LSC honorable mention pick made nine of his 11 field-goal attempts.

      Guy, the LSC Player of the Year, scored 16 points and dished out seven assists while Upchurch, a first-team All-LSC pick, scored 22 points and made four 3-pointers.

      For the Buffaloes, three players finished in double-figure scoring, led by Keon Pledger’s 17 points. Tez Dumars had 15 while Antjuan Ball scored 12 and pulled down a game-high eight rebounds. The glass kept the Buffaloes in the game as they out-rebounded Tarleton 38-30.

      After shooting 41 percent from the field in the first half, the Buffaloes shot only 32 percent in the second half and 37 percent for the game. West Texas was just 5 of 17 from 3-point land.

      West Texas guard Drimir Ferguson, who had 24 points in a game against Tarleton earlier in the season, scored just six points Wednesday on 1-of-12 shooting. 

      The Texans only turned the ball over eight times and made 22 of 27 free throws. 

      Tarleton shot 57.7 percent in the first half and 52.7 overall for the game.

 
Tarleton State Notes
  • Tarleton State (25-2) is now 24-13 all-time in the Lone Star Conference Basketball Championships entering their semifinal game on Friday. The Texans, who won the tournament last year, will play at 8:30 p.m. on Friday in the semifinals against the quarterfinal winner of Texas A&M-Commerce and Eastern New Mexico. The Lions and ENMU play at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday to determine the Texans’ next opponent.
  • The Texans have won five straight LSC Championship quarterfinal games and are now 13-3 in the first round. TSU’s last loss in the first round of the tournament came in a 77-76 overtime defeat to Central Oklahoma in the 2009 tournament in Bartlesville, Okla.
  • TSU is now 5-2 all-time against WT in the conference tournament and 22-23 in the series. It was the third win over the Buffs in Allen. The average score in those three games is 71-55 in Tarleton’s favor.
  • Chuck Guy went 9-for-10 from the free-throw line. The nine free throws took his season total to 149 free-throws made which ranks second all-time in TSU’s program history for a single season. Guy, who was named the LSC Player of the Year on Tuesday, passed former Texans Brandon Burney was second in the record book with 148 free throws in the 2000 season and is quickly approaching Roderick Brown who established the program record with 154 free-throws made in 1990.
  • Tashawn Mabry scored a career-high 24 points after going 9-for-11 from the field, including hitting three 3-pointers. Mabry’s previous career-high was 22 in a win at Cameron in February.
  • De’Andre Upchurch scored 22 points and had five rebounds. It was the ninth 20-point scoring performance of his career.
  • Guy finished the game with 16 points and seven assists. It was the 45th career double-digit game for Guy and the 31st time he’s had five assists or more in his career.
  • It was the 20th game of the season that the Texans won by double digits.
  • Tarleton State led 49-37 at halftime. The lead at halftime was the 21st time this season that the Texans went into the locker room after the first 20 minutes of play with a lead.
  • The Texans improved to 3-0 in neutral-court games and to 7-1 in games played on Wednesday. They have won six straight neutral court games.
  • The 19-point win was one point away from Tarleton’s 12th 20-point win of the season.
 
West Texas A&M Notes
 
  • The Buffs lost their sixth straight game to end the season.
  • The Buffs lead the all-time series with Tarleton State 23-22. However, Tarleton has won eight of the last 11 meetings between the two sides.
  • It was the third-straight season in which Tarleton ended West Texas’ season in the LSC Championship.
  • The Buffs trailed at the half 49-37. WT finishes 5-12 on the season when trailing at the intermission.
  • Antjuan Ball started Wednesday’s contest making him the only Buff to start all 27 games on the season.
  • Miles Gatewood fouled out with 11:35 remaining. It was the second time he fouled out this season. Prince Williams fouled out as well for the first time this season.
  • Keon Pledger led the Buffs with 17 points. It was the fourth time this season that he the team in scoring. Tez Dumars added 15 points and Antjuan Ball with 12.
  • The Buffs finished the season with an 0-4 record against ranked teams as Tarleton is the second-ranked team.
  • Interim head coach Vinay Patel finishes with a 6-14 mark as the interim coach.
  • Antjuan Ball led WT with seven rebounds. It was the 22nd time this season he led the team in rebounding.