More than 1,800 WTAMU faithful gathered in the First United Bank Center on Jan. 18 to watch the West Texas A&M Buffalo basketball team defeat the 5-10 Javelinas of Texas A&M Kingsville, 82-59.
The game started off rather slow; neither team seemed to be worried about making the contest a shootout. It wasn’t until just under 17 minutes remained in the first half that the first Buffalo points were put on the board, courtesy of WT junior forward David Duncan.
The Buffs got ahead early, leading 13-4 with 11:42 left in the opening half. The Javelinas cut the lead to 17-14 following a couple fast break layups and a free throw. Soon following, a WT offensive foul would lead to a Javelina jumper and a Buffalo lead of only one point with just under six minutes to play in the first half. Duncan would sink a pair of jumpers to quickly extend the Buffalo lead back to six as they led 27-21 with 3:53 remaining in the first half.
At the break, the Buffs were up by 11 points at 37-26. The Buffs were led at the break by Duncan with 10 points and six rebounds followed by junior guard Tez Dumars with eight points, junior forward Barry Robertson with six and senior guard Drimir Ferguson with five.
The Javelinas were led at the half by Jordan Jahr with 12 points and three rebounds followed by Irvin Hollinger with five points and Ronald Scot with four. The Buffs held the LSC’s leading scorer, Rashad Basy, to no points in the opening half with two personal fouls.
The two teams exchanged layups to open the second half before a pair of Javelina layups forced a Buffs timeout with WT leading 39-32 with 17:42 left.
The Buffs led 48-37 at the first media timeout of the second half. The Buffs used a Kingsville turnover to their advantage after the timeout as senior guard David Gibbs scored a fast break layup followed by junior guard Keon Pledger stepping to the charity stripe the next two possessions as he hit all four to stretch the WT lead to 54-39 with 12:53 left. Junior guard Miles Gatewood found Robertson for the layup to force a Kingsville timeout with the Buffs leading 56-39 with 12:13 remaining. A Javelina layup and three pointer cut the Buffs lead to 58-42 with 9:44 left.
The teams would trade points, the Buffs being led by several Duncan slams, and with 4:05 left in the game the score was 68-56 in favor of the Buffs. The free throw line would give the Buffs most of their remaining points following the final media timeout. With 1:33 left in the game, a Gatewood fast-break layup would make it 77-58 and force the final Kingsville timeout.
West Texas A&M finished the game led by Duncan with a career high 20 points and nine rebounds followed by Ferguson with 12 points and 11 assists for the double-double.
The Buffs return to action on Wednesday night as they host the #6 ranked Texans of Tarleton State (15-0, 4-0 LSC) with tipoff set for 7:30 p.m. at the First United Bank Center in Canyon.
