FORT WORTH, TX: The No. 1 Texas Wesleyan University Men's Basketball team (3-1) steamrolled to a 94-79 win over Huston-Tillotson University (0-1) in the Sid Richardson Center on Saturday.
The TXWES Rams jumped on the Rams of HTU early, starting the game on an 8-0 run. The Rams' defense did not allow HTU a bucket in the first 3:28 of the contest. Texas Wesleyan started 6-of-8 from the field while HTU missed each of its first six shots, and the Rams quickly built a double-figure margin at 14-4.
Branden Jenkins poured in 15 points in the first half. Jenkins was 6-of-10 from the field in the period, while the Rams shot just over 60% (17-28) as a team and led 45-33 at the intermission.
The second half was more of the same as Texas Wesleyan started the period on a 12-0 run that lasted nearly five minutes. Back-to-back three's from
Rob Thomas and
Jeremy Crane capped the run and put the game all but out of reach at 57-33. Texas Wesleyan kept HTU at arm's length for the remainder of the contest on the way to the 94-79 victory.
Jenkins scored a game-high 24 points while pulling down nine rebounds.
Rob Thomas finished with 18 points.
Curtiss Anderson just missed a double-double with 16 points and 8 boards.
Sam Smith and
Jeremy Craned added 11 and 10 points respectively. Demarcus Emanuel came off the bench and contributed 4 points and 10 rebounds in just 13 minutes on the court.
For the game, the Rams outshot HTU 59%-39% from the floor, 42%-34% from long range, and 66%-55% at the free throw line. Texas Wesleyan dominated inside, holding a +20 rebounding margin (50-30) and outscoring HTU 54-26 in the lane.
Huston-Tillotson was led by Davon Parmer who came off the bench to score 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting.
The Rams will return to action on Tuesday, when they travel to Marshall, TX, to take on Wiley College. That game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start.
Ramblings
- Texas Wesleyan continued its dominance in the Battle-of-Rams extending its lead in the all-time series with HTU to 24-5.
- The Rams are in the midst of a 5-game stretch of games against teams from their former conference, the Red River Athletic Conference. They are currently 2-1 in that stretch with games against Wiley, #11 LSU-Shreveport, and Jarvis Christian to come.
- The Rams lead the all-time series with Wiley College 25-11.
- Through four games,
Branden Jenkins leads five Rams in double-figure scoring at an even 20 points per game. Meanwhile the Rams are averaging 86.2 points per game while holding their opponents to 76.2 points per game.
