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DURANT, Okla. – Tarleton's Corin Henry hit 10 of the Texans' last 13 points of the contest Monday to lift the purple and white to a 48-43 victory at Southeastern Oklahoma.
The Texan had Tarleton's last six points from the charity stripe as Tarleton claimed the come-from-behind victory as it scored 15 of the final 22 points of the contest.
“We didn't shoot the ball well in the first half,” Tarleton head coach Lonn Reisman said. “I felt like we executed, but we couldn't hit anything or get any offensive rebounds. I thought our defense played great. We couldn't ask anything more from our defense.”
The Texans (6-2) were outrebounded 41-34 in the contest and averaged just 26 percent from the floor on Monday. Tarleton's top three scorers coming into the game went a combined five-of-28 from the field.
“Southeastern Oklahoma is a tough place to play, and the Savage Storm is a really good team,” Reisman said. “It's hard to keep the defensive intensity when your offense is not playing well, but our defense kept us in the game.”
The Texans forced 18 turnovers by SOSU and turned them into 10 points.
“We forced a lot of turnovers today and only turning the ball over 10 times on the road,” Reisman said. “We didn't shoot very well tonight, and our defense is going to keep us in games right now until our offense starts to get into a rhythm.”
Tarleton got on the board first with 17:55 on the clock when Wale Ogunoye hit a layup for the Texans before Mychal Horn had the same on the opposite end. Ogunoye had two free throws at 15:19 to put the Texans up 4-2, but that would be the last points for the Texans for almost eight nine minutes.
SOSU would score eight straight points to take a 10-4 lead before Devon Hills had a steal and a layup at 8:34 to end a field goal drought for the Texans that lasted 9:21. The Savage Storm then scored seven points to stretch the lead to 11, 17-6.
Hills hit a three from the right side of the arc to end a 5:26 drought, hitting the bucket at 3:08. Henry then got a layup to cut the score to 17-11 before John Allison had two free throws at 2:19. The last point for the Texans came with 62 seconds left in the half when Jeremiah Wilson had a free throw to cut the lead to 19-12, but SOSU's Will Robinson had two bonus shots to make it 21-12 at the break.
The Texans averaged just 14.3 percent from the floor (4-28) and seven percent from the arc (1-13) in the opening period. Tarleton was outrebounded 27-14 in the first half as well. The Savage Storm averaged 38.1 percent from the floor in the half.
Tarleton scored the first points of the second half as well when Effran Bryant had a layup 1:41 into the period. A three by Chibuzo Elonu put the led at 10, but the Texans did not wait as long to score again in the second half as Hills had an old-fashioned three-point play at 16:07. Zach Scrivner then hit another three for the Savage Storm to return the lead to 10 before Donta Smith got his first points of the contest with a layup on the return trip down the floor.
Tarleton scored the next three points with a layup by Wilson and a free throw by Jeremy Gilbert before Allison and Oguonye traded buckets. Bryant then hit a three for Tarleton at 11:52 to cut the score to 29-27.
The two teams traded buckets for the next several minutes, and with the Texans trailing 36-33, Hills was fouled shooting a three with 4:47 on the clock. The Texan junior missed the first but made the second and third to cut the lead to one. Henry then gave the Texans the lead for the first time since the 15:19-mark of the first half when he hit two free throws at 3:56. The junior then hit a jumper at the right elbow to increase the lead to three, 39-36.
Hills continued the Texan scoring with a NBA-range three from the top of the key to give the Texans a six-point lead with 2:02 remaining in the contest. Jordan Lee then hit four straight free throws at 1:41 and 1:10 to cut the Texan lead to two, 42-40. With 53.2 seconds left, Henry hit two bonus shots for Tarleton to stretch the lead to four.
On the opposite end of the floor, Bryant got a steal and Henry was fouled to stop the clock, and the junior hit both with 28.2 on the clock. Will Robinson hit a three from the left side of the arc with 21.9 on the clock to cut the lead to three before Henry was fouled with 15.7 seconds remaining to stop the clock. Henry hit both to give the Texans a 48-43 victory.
Tarleton was led by Henry with 16 points and Hills with 13. Wilson led the squad with eight rebounds.
The Texans improved to shoot 40 percent in the second half to finish the game with a 26.4 percentage from the floor (14-53) while averaging .150 from the arc (3-20) and .773 from the stripe (17-22).
SOSU was led by Allison with 11 points and William Slones with nine rebounds.
The Savage Storm averaged .311 from the floor (14-45), .308 from the arc (4-13) and .647 from the line (11-17).
The Texans will return to action at home on Saturday, Dec. 19 when they host Southwestern Oklahoma at 7 p.m. in Wisdom Gym.
