The WTAMU Buffalo basketball team travelled to Allen, Texas on Feb. 29 to compete in the Lone Star Conference Championship tournament. The Buffs handled the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds in round one 80-47, but fell 59-37 to the seventh-ranked Tarleton State Texans in the semifinals.

WT and ENMU started the game tied 10-10 with 13:09 to go in the first half. The Buffs then came up with a 29-8 run to give them a 39-18 lead at the break. WT played a strong inside game, outscoring the Greyhounds 28-6 in the paint during the half.

Even though both teams traded shots in the second half, the Buffs maintained at least a 30 point lead for the final 9:04 of the game. Senior Courtney Carr led the Buffs with 20 points, while junior Donald Sims had 12 points in the game.WT started out sluggish in the semifinal, not scoring until the 11:43 mark of the first half, meanwhile the Texans had built a 10-0 lead. The Buffs answered with seven straight points, but could not overtake TSU’s lead, going into the locker trailing 20-17.

The Texans used two big runs to pull away from WT in the second half. TSU went on a 14-4 run to start the half and take a 34-21 lead with 13:36 left in the game. Then with the score at 37-27, the Texans went on a 19-9 run to finish the game.

Sims was the only Buff in double figures with 10 points. WT shot poorly, shooting 17 of 46 from the field, just one of 11 from downtown and only two of nine free throws.

“We just couldn’t get shots to drop and we really struggled to keep them off the glass,” Head Coach Rick Cooper said.

WT was also without junior Kennon Washington, who hurt his achilles in the final regular season game against Cameron.

“Our depth became an issue in the second half [against TSU] so it would have helped to have Kennon available,” Cooper said.