TSU squeaks past NSU to advance in men's championship
Mike Daniels sank two free throws with 3.7 seconds remaining to give Tarleton State a 64-63 win over Northeastern State in Wednesday night's quarterfinals of the Lone Star Conference Tournament at Bruin Field House.
Daniels was fouled 30 feet from the basket, just four seconds after Northeastern grabbed a one-point lead on Aaron Arango's long 3-pointer with just nine seconds to play.
After Daniels hit both free throws, Arango quickly drove the length of the court but a running hook shot came up short, giving the Texans the dramatic win.
The Texans (23-5) advance to Friday's semifinal game against the winner of the Central Oklahoma-Angelo State contest, the fourth quarterfinal game of the day.
Tarleton is now the highest-remaining seed from the South division with top-seed West Texas A&M falling in the first session to Texas A&M-Commerce. The Texans finished the regular season with a 9-3 conference record, earning the No. 2 seed in the South.
Tarleton was led by Terrance Gamble, who scored a career-high 22 points. The senior center from Orlando scored 11 in each half, along with recording three rebounds, three steals and four blocked shots.
Eric Williams had 16 points and eight rebounds for the Texans while Avery Patterson had 15 points.
The RiverHawks, whose season comes to an end at 14-14, had three players in double figures, led by Arango's 16 points, along with Mike Bontrager's 15 points and 14 from Steve Neal.
In a game where neither team led by more than seven, the lead changed hands seven times in the second half, Tarleton used an 8-0 run to take a 61-57 lead with 2:28 to play on a 3-pointer by Patterson. A layup from Williams with 31 seconds gave Tarleton another four-point lead but two free throws by Arango and then a missed free throw by Daniels set up Arango's dramatic 3-pointer.
But Daniels got the chance to redeem himself when he was fouled by RiverHawks guard Ricky Branham.
In the only regular-season meeting between the two teams this year, Tarleton defeated Northeastern 65-58 on Jan. 5 in Stephenville.
In the first half, Tarleton had the biggest lead of the game for both teams with a 27-20 advantage with only 2:29 to play until halftime. While the Texans ripped off three straight buckets to trim Northeastern's lead to one, the RiverHawks closed the half with a three-point play by Arango with less than a second remaining on the clock, for a 33-28 lead at the break.
But Tarleton scored the first nine points of the second half and went on a 17-6 run to regain the momentum.
Tarleton State Quotes
Lonn Reisman
Tarleton State Head Coach
(About the game)
"The game was everything I thought it would be. It came down to a possession game. It was a bloodbath between a couple of heavyweight fighters. I think it came down to both teams playing with a lot of characters."
(On the foul with 3.4 seconds)
"It think it was a definite foul. You can go back and watch the tape. Mike Daniels was who we were going to give the ball too and let him go to the basket. He's a winner. He plays games with a passion."
(On style of play)
"We've been really trying to a better job of being an inside-outside team. If you're going to win in tournament play, your not going to win by just shooting from the outside. We've got to continue to draw people in by dribble penetration and find the open shooter."
Northeastern and Tarleton are possession teams. We've got to make every possession count. They are going to make you work every time down the floor. Northeastern has a very good team, they have a lot of outstanding players. We tried to take them out of their comfort zone....make them go to the two-ball instead of just shooting threes.
Terrrance Gamble
"We're not guaranteed anything. Coach tells us to play like it is our last game and that is what we did. I was just trying to go for every rebound. When you work hard things fall in for you and you get rebounds.
Avery Patterson
"We got a statement to prove. We're coming out strong. We lost our last game and we wanted to redeem ourselves tonight."
NSU QUOTES
Head Coach Larry Gipson/Northeastern State:
OPENING STATEMENT: "Our kids battled their guts out. They played
their
hearts out. I have a locker room full of distraught guys. I
thought we
made every play we needed to make. We played with enough courage
to
win the game.
FIRST HALF: "In the last half of our season, our kids gained
an
understanding of what I was asking to them. They bought into what
we
were teaching them."
ON THE GAME: "I feel kids should be allowed to decide the game.
We
made the plays down the stretch that we felt we needed to make.
I
thought we held our own. We deserved to win this game."
Ben Rovenstine/Northeastern State:
"I thought the guys played hard as a team. For the second half of
the
season, we played our guts out."
Gipson on Rovenstine
"I think they were aware of Ben. I think our offense runs better
with
Ben in the game. He's a smart player.
Steve Neal/Northeastern State:
"I went out with the attitude that this could be my last
game."
Neal on Size of Tarleton being a factor:
"Not at all."
Tarleton State notes
The Texans recorded their first LSC Tournament win since 2006 . . . Tarleton is now 14-8 all-time in the tournament. The Texans have advanced to this tournament 10 times in the last 13 years . . . Tarleton trailed at halftime for just the seventh time this season, but improved to 3-4 in those contests . . . Terrance Gamble scored a career-high 22 points, surpassing his pervious best of 18 points, recorded earlier this season at Midwestern State . . . Jefrey Henfield led the Texans with 21 games in double-figure scoring but was held to just two points, both from the free-throw line. . . Tarleton edged Northeastern in rebounds 29-28, improving to a 19-3 this season when outrebounding its opponent . . . Tarleton is the No. 1 team in the LSC in free-throw shooting at .721 percent and improved on that with a 15-of-20 performance Wednesday night against Northeastern.
NSU notes
In its first LSC Tournament appearance since the 2003-04 season, NSU held TSU to well under its season average of 71.5 points per game despite dropping a close 65-64 decision to the Texans ... With the loss, the series history between Northeastern State and Tarleton State moves to 8-7 in favor of TSU, as the Texans have now won the last six meetings ... The teams tied the score seven times in the game while the lead changed seven time, as well ... For the game, the RiverHawks shot a perfect 12-of-12 from the free throw line ... Additionally, NSU shot 46.8% (22-of-47) from the field and 47.1% from behind the arc (8-of-17) ... Northeastern State committed 14 turnovers - double the amount of Texan give aways - and allowed TSU to score 16 points off of the give aways ... NSU's Aaron Arango scored 16 to lead the RiverHawks, marking the 12th time that Arango has been the team-high scorer ... Mike Bontrager tallied 15 points ... Arango and Bontrager both made three three-pointers ... Steve Neal scored just about his season average (13.2) by tallying 14 points ... Neal, fourth in the LSC in rebounding with an average of 7.8 rpg, pulled down a game-high nine rebounds ... Northeastern State's bench outscored TSU's bench by a 21-9 margin.
