Box Score
 
Season Statistics
 
CANYON, Texas – Coach Tom Brown of the West Texas A&M men's basketball team earned his first career victory as a head coach as the Buffs defeated Colorado State-Pueblo, 82-66, in the team's 2014-15 home opener on Saturday afternoon at the First United Bank Center in Canyon, Texas. The Buffs also earn their first win of the season in what was the first of a six-game homestand and improve to 1-3 as the ThunderWolves now fall to 3-1 on the year.
 
In what was an early season rematch between the two teams, WT came out as a completely different team, jumping to an early lead and never giving up, disallowing any lengthy runs and handling the ThunderWolves' press with much more ease late in the game compared to the first meeting on the road.
 
"For starters, it's a lot more fun playing at home than on the road," commented Brown after the win. "But our starting point guard did not play and that is always an issue when dealing with the press. However, the other guys really stepped up today in that regard. It's good to see when you have Carl (White), a guy who can really be a 4 or 5 for us on the floor, is taking the ball out of bounds for us and actually handling it a little bit."
 
The Buffs managed to eclipse the 80-point total offensively for the fourth-consecutive game to start the season, something they were only able to do seven times last season. This marks the first time in which WT has begun the season scoring 80+ points for four-straight contests since the 2001-'02 season where it matched that total during the first five games of the year.

"We really wanted to come out in this game and focus on doing our job on the defensive end," noted senior Antjuan Ball. "We knew we would be set on the offensive end. With being a small team on the floor tonight, we really put an emphasis on boxing out and putting ourselves in good position on every play."
 
WT was led offensively by Ball (9-for-11) and fellow senior Miles Gatewood (8-for-12) who each tallied 20 points on the night, leading all scorers, while senior Tez Dumars (6-for-12) grabbed 19. The Buffs were efficient from the field, shooting a season best .612 (30-for-49) while they held CSUP to 22-for-66 (.333), also a season-best. WT also had its best output from the charity stripe, going 18-for-23 (.783). Freshman Carl White would also finish in double figures with 11 points, eight rebounds, two assists, two blocks, and three steals, while freshman Jeff Bonner grabbed eight points and eight boards as well.
 
After giving up an early 3-pointer to CSUP's Rico Spikes, the Buffs jumped out to an early 14-2 run over the visiting ThunderWolves over the first five minutes of the contest, kicked off by a slam dunk by Ball. WT would never relinquish the lead after the early 3-2 deficit.
 
Around the 10:00 mark, CSUP would cut the Buffs' big lead to five as they threw up back-to-back triples off the fingertips of Bronson Moton and Jed Knafelc to make the score 25-20, in favor of WT. The home team would then storm to another 13-4 run, extending the lead to 38-24 with 3:08 left in the first half.
 
With a 43-28 lead at the break, Gatewood and Ball would lead all scorers in the game with 11 points each. White would be the workhorse on the defensive end in the first 20 minutes of play as he picked up three steals with five boards, four of them on the defensive glass.
 
The Buffs would shoot 17-for-27 (.630) from the field in the first half while holding the opponents to 10-for-32 (.313). Even with a strong size disadvantage, WT would dominate on the glass in the opening half, outrebounding CSUP 23-9.
 
"The size issue is something we are going to have to battle with all season," added Brown. "A lot of teams focus on rebounding but we definitely have to because we are not very big. But we have some very scrappy guys and some guys who really play hard. When we do that, we can look pretty good on the glass."
 
With the smallest lead for WT being 11 for the remainder of the game, the Buffs controlled the game for the final 20 minutes of play, at times extending the advantage to 20+ points with a lead as high as 24 which came at the 7:29 point in the second half. The Buffs would use an early 16-5 run to extend the advantage to 59-37 with 10:54 remaining and never let off the gas.
 
WT outscored CSUP with a 46-16 points-in-the-paint advantage and grabbed 12 fast-break points to the ThunderWolves' two.
 
"We really focused a lot on some things from that first meeting with these guys that we did not do so well," Brown noted. "We gave the guys a little bit more time off and focused a lot on watching film. The regrouping was something we really needed and it helped out having that home court advantage. Hopefully we can continue to get some more fans out here behind us because I think we have a really fun team to watch this year."
 
With the win, WT improves to 13-5 all-time against CSUP and splits the season series after dropping the first game in Pueblo on Nov. 14.
 
WT will be back in action next Wednesday night, Nov. 26, as it welcomes in Pittsburg State to the FUBC in Canyon. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. Live stats and a free video webstream will be available courtesy of West Texas A&M Athletic Media Relations. The game can also be heard on the radio on 98.7 Jack FM. The Buffs are 3-3 all-time against the Gorillas.