- Box Score
STEPHENVILLE – The Tarleton Texan basketball team defeated Texas A&M-Kingsville by a score of 63-52 and improved to 20-1 on the season. With that, the Texans now have the best start in the 51 year history as a senior college.
Tarleton battled an A&M-Kingsville team that refused to give up.
The Javelinas struck first after the initial few minutes of the game was sloppy on both ends of the floor. Kingsville scored a bucket at the 17:33 mark, which is notable because they did not do so again until the 5:50 mark in the first half.
Tarleton countered from the first punch of TAMUK and mounted a 15-0 run over the next several minutes.
The Javelinas ended their drought at the 5:50 mark with a basket, but by then the Texans had already built a substantial 16-5 lead.
Tarleton had a comfortable double-digit lead, but Kingsville started a rally of their own as they fought against the tough defense of the Texans.
No. 3 Tarleton team got some motivating play from their bench players, which gave the Texans a double-digit lead once again.
By halftime, Tarleton led the Javelinas 27-17. Tarleton shot 47.6 percent through the first 20 minutes of play.
The Texan defense had an excellent half by holding Kingsville to 16.1 percent shooting and 13.3 percent behind the arc. Tarleton on the other hand hit 42.9 percent of their three-pointers.
Wes Dipprey had a team-high eight points and five rebounds at the break. Shedrick Haynes chipped in six points while five different players had three or more rebounds at the break.
Going into the second half, Tarleton had to be careful not to get complacent against a dangerous Kingsville team. Earlier this season, the Javelinas made a second-half comeback and lost by a narrow two-point margin. The Texans wanted to prevent Kingsville from doing that again Wednesday.
The Javelinas cut the lead to seven at 32-25 by the 15:00 mark, but buckets by Clemons, Dipprey and Webb quickly made it 39-25 ball game.
Tarleton pulled back out ahead 45-32 with 8:48 remaining.
From there on, it was all Texans as they kept their foot on the gas. Tarleton got the lead to as high as 14 points.
Kingsville attempted to keep it close towards the end, but the No. 1 defense in the nation proved to be too much.
With a 63-52 victory, the Texans completed the best start in the modern era of Tarleton basketball at 20-1. The 2002-03 team started 19-1.
Tarleton shot 44.4 percent overall and hit 18 of their 29 free throw attempts. The Texans held Kingsville to 28.8 percent shooting and 6-of-29 from deep.
Wes Dipprey had a monstrous game with 18 points and 13 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. Shedrick Haynes added 12 points, while Warren Webb added 11 points, six rebounds and five assists.
Damion Clemons came off the bench and played a season-high 13 minutes. He finished with five points on 2-of-3 shooting.
The Texans move on to face Incarnate Word Saturday at 4:30 p.m. in San Antonio.
For more information regarding the 2011-12 Tarleton basketball campaign, check out TarletonSports.com.
