The West Texas A&M Buffaloes men’s basketball team jumped out to a fast start against the Angelo State Rams on Wednesday night, going into halftime with a 49-32 lead, and ultimately winning the game by a final score of 92-77. The win gave the Buffs a quality win against the twelth ranked Angelo State program, and also launched the Buffs into a tie for first place in the Lone Star Conference.
The game was widely dominated by the Buffs. The Buffs went on a 29-12 run to close out the first half. David Chavlovich, a sophomore guard for the Buffs, scored 16 of his 24 points in just the first half alone. Jerrod Walton, sophomore guard, also had a huge game for the Buffs, finishing with 27 points and eight rebounds, just two rebounds shy of a double double. The 27 points was also a season high for Walton. Walton was also 14 of 14 from the free throw line, which he accredited to good coaching from Coach Kratz and growing confidence.
“Yeah, he’s really helped me out a lot this season,” Walton said. “It’s all about confidence, and when you start making them you keep going and going and going.”
Jeff Bonner, a senior guard for WT, also had a huge night on the rebounding side of things once again for the Buffs tallying 11 boards, a trend that has been consistent over the past few games.
“I will say as the people get taller since we’ve started playing LSC games, it gets harder,” Bonner said. “I try to use my speed and throw it up there. Even if it gets blocked, coaches are never negative with me. They are like ‘come on, you can do this.'”
The last time the Buffs played the Rams in San Angelo, the Buffs built a big lead going into the second half and let the lead slip away. This game seemed to look like it would be going in the same direction, with the Buffs building a 17 point lead in the first half and allowing a 9-1 run to open up the second half to cut the lead to six points. Head coach Tom Brown said that he was lucky to have the coaching staff he has and that they’re a big reason for why the Buffs won.
“I’m so luck to have [Gove], [Henderson] and Kratz,” Brown said. “Those three guys are the best and we would not be 18-7 without those guys. It’s just incredible what they do every day. That timeout, we needed that. It’s something that he knows that and he’s got the freedom to do that. It’s like having four head coaches. It’s a lot of fun to have those guys.”
Walton said that the last time the Buffs faced the Rams, the team focused way too much on what Chavlovich was doing and waited for him to make a play instead of coming together and finishing that game as a team.
“When we went down there, no one was stepping up and we were hoping David would make a play,” Walton said. “This game everyone was into it. We were all cutting, we were all got open and making plays and that’s what we need to do the rest of the time.”
The win extended the Buffs current win streak to six wins. The Buffs are now tied with Cameron for first place in the league and will now go on a short road trip that starts against Texas A&M Kingsville on Feb. 6. Brown said that first place in the league sounded pretty good.
“That sounds pretty good. That sounds really good,” Brown said. “There will be some big games coming down the stretch. We have five games left, and four of those are on the road, so we just have to take it one at a time.”