Canyon, TX- Head Coach Tom Brown and his team knew their defense was going to be tested against a typical high scoring UT-Permian Basin(9-2; 2-1) team that averages about 95 points per game. 22^nd ranked West Texas A&M (11-1; 3-0) slowed down the Falcons enough to earn a hard fought 89-80 victory.

            Six home games turned into six wins for Head Coach Tom Brown’s team. Now the Buffs will have just 3 home game between now and February 9^th. Two of the road games are against ranked opponents. With that in mind Brown knew this game was a big one.

“We needed this one.” Brown said. “It’s always great to win. These are games that in this conference, UTPB who had one loss, they are a very good team and it’s going to be tough night in and night out. When we go there it will be a battle. It was a good win to get at home and finish off this long home stand.”

            David Chavlovich said after the Eastern New Mexico game that their defense would be tested in this game, and he was right. Chavlovich feels he and the team did very well in giving nothing easy for the Falcons. “I thought we had really good help defense.” Chavlovich said. “Permian Basin does a great job at creating one on one matchups in their favor and really good one on one players. I thought we did a good job on help each other in those one on one situations.”

            Chavlovich had the game high 28 points along with 4 assists, 4 rebounds and a steal in 36 minutes of play time.

            Jordan Evans also had a great contribution with 19 points and had 5 rebounds and 2 blocks. If contested shots were a recorded stat, Evans would likely have had a double-double as was one the many Buffs who made sure every opposing shot was contested. “We took away their strengths.” Evans said. “A lot of them would get in the paint but we took away the majority of the shots.”

            WT’s first of many games away from home will be at New Mexico Highlands this Saturday at 8pm. WT returns home on New Year’s Eve against Oklahoma City.