Box Score / Season Statistics Western State 11-15-14: (Live Stats)Tournament Central Buffalo Basketball Game Notes PUEBLO, Colo. – The West Texas A&M men's basketball team began the
Tom Brown era on Friday night with a tough 94-81 road loss to Colorado State-Pueblo in the opening of the 31
st annual Al Kaly Classic in Pueblo, Colo. The Buffs, who return just three players who saw playing time a year ago, put together a strong opening half, heading into the break up by three, but struggled in the closing seven minutes of the match to begin the season 0-1. With the win, the ThunderWolves start their 2014-15 campaign with a 1-0 record.
"I was really proud of the guys tonight and the way they came out," noted first year head coach
Tom Brown. "It's tough for them being such a young team with not a lot of experience together to start off the year on the road against a good Pueblo squad. Our opponents had some good size and experience with some starters coming back from last season."
The Buffs were led Friday night by seniors
Antjuan Ball and
Tez Dumars with 18 points apiece, while fellow senior
Miles Gatewood recorded a career-high 15 points. WT shot the ball well in the first half, going 18-of-37 (48.6%) from the field but finished off the night at 30-of-76 (39.5%). CSUP would make 31 baskets off of just 55 attempts (56.4%) on the night as they earned the double-digit win. Much of the Buffs' damage would come from deep in the opening half as they went 9-of-17 for an astounding 52.9%; however, would fail on all 11 attempts from beyond the arc in the final frame.
WT held with the ThunderWolves in tonight's game until just the final six to seven minutes, and often times possessed small leads that would never extend past the six-to-eight point range. After trailing 9-5 early on in the first quarter, freshmen
David Chavlovich and
Tommy Gove converted on their first attempts from long range, giving the Buffs their first lead of the game, 12-11 at the 16:23 mark.
CSUP would make another run, this time tallying eight straight points to tie the game shortly before the half. But Gatewood would sink a three-pointer from five feet outside the line as time expired to send the team into the locker room up 49-46.
By the break, three Buffs would hit double-digit marks in points. Leading all scorers in the game through the first 20 minutes was Gatewood with 13. Dumars would tally 11 while Chavlovich also added 10 to the Buffs' 49 first-half point total.
The Buffs began the second half with possession and created great momentum through the first two minutes, allowing Ball to hit a smooth mid-range jumper followed by a big-time jam off an alley-oop from Chavlovich in transition. Ball followed up on the defensive end by drawing a big charge to quiet the Massari Arena faithful. Another bucket later, WT found itself with a seven-point lead.
CSUP answered with a 7-0 run, thanks to a called intentional foul leading to a four-point play for the home team. Chavlovich would then connect with Gatewood for a fast-break layup to regain the lead, 57-55 with 16:29 to go on the clock.
Both teams found themselves tied again at 62-62 at the 14:22 mark. The ThunderWolves again went on an 8-2 run thanks to three-consecutive fouls with just 14 minutes remaining to take the 70-64 advantage. WT was able to pull within two after a couple of made free throws by Dumars; however, that would be the closest the Buffs would draw near for the remainder of the contest as CSUP put up an 8-1 run to essentially put the game away with less than five minutes remaining.
"We really had to battle tonight and I wish there was some more time on the clock because I believe we could have made another run," Brown added. "We had some good leads throughout the game. But we need to learn to build up those leads and not give them up. I think we can do that because we have some players with exceptional character and a great desire to do big things this year."
After only being able to post 80+ points just seven times in 27 games in 2013-14, the Buffs were able to do so tonight in the season opener. With the loss, they fall to 12-5 in the all-time series with the ThunderWolves. Both teams will meet again in Canyon at the First United Bank Center (FUBC) on Saturday, Nov. 22, for the Buffs' home opener.
Both Ball and freshman
Carl White would lead in production off the glass, grabbing nine boards each Friday night. Each tallied five on the offensive end and four defensively. Gatewood finished the night with 15 points and went 4-of-5 from beyond the arc, tying a career-high in three-pointers made. Chavlovich would total 14 points in his first collegiate game. The Buffs would go just 12-of-22 (54.5%) while the home team finished 24-of-30 (80%).
Leading the way for CSUP was Rico Spikes with 21 points. Tyrone Marshall and Bronson Moton also tallied double figures with 19 and 18 points, respectively.
The Buffs will be back in action tomorrow afternoon as they take on Western State (Colo.) at 4 p.m. (CT). Live stats and video for Friday's matchup against Western State at the Al Kaly Classic will be available and provided by Colorado State-Pueblo Athletics. Live scoring updates can also be found by following @wtathletics on Twitter. Links can be found at the top of the page or on
www.GoBuffsGo.com via the men's basketball schedule page.
WESTERN STATE AT A GLANCE: The Mountaineers went 3-23 last season overall, with all three of those wins coming in RMAC play for a 3-19 conference mark. They return three players who recorded at least 10 starts a year ago, including senior guard Mason Biddle who was the second-leading scorer on the squad at 13.8 points per game. New to the program is first-year head coach Bradd Schafer, who comes to WSU after spending the previous eight years, four as a head coach, at Black Hills State.
WT leads the all-time series against Western State, 3-0. The last meeting was a 85-55 WT victory on Nov. 23, 2007.
The Mountaineers dropped their contest in day one of the tournament as well, losing to Midwestern State, 77-63. They begin the season 0-1.
