Boxscore

CANYON, Texas – West Texas A&M's Miles Gatewood and Tez Dumars combined for 37 points as the pair of seniors led the Buffs past visiting Lubbock Christian, 67-58 in front of over 600 fans on Wednesday night at the First United Bank Center in Canyon. The Buffs even their overall record at 4-4 while the Chaps fall to 2-3 on the season.
 
The Buffs opened up the scoring on their third possession as Miles Gatewood connected on a jumper at the top of the key followed a trip later by a Carl White three from the corner on the inbound to take the early 5-2 lead, Antjuan Ball grabbed an offensive board and finished with the putback at 7-2 followed by another Gatewood bucket before an LCU three from the top of the key stopped the WT run as the teams traded buckets to head into the first media timeout of the game with the Buffs leading 11-7 with 15:17 left.
 
Tez Dumars hit one of two from the charity stripe after the break to run the lead to 12-7 followed by a pair of LCU free throws as both teams continued to struggle from the floor as they traded misses heading into the under-12 minute media timeout with the Buffs leading 12-9. The Chaps came out firing after the break as they hit a pair of freebies from the stripe followed by a three at the top of the key to force a Buffs timeout with 11:18 remaining and LCU leading 13-12, a Garrett Brockman three from the corner stalled the LCU run before a loose-ball battle turned into a Chaps layup followed by an LCU free throw to run the lead to 16-15. David Chavlovich would answer as the freshman nailed an off-balance three from the top of the key to give WT the lead heading into a media timeout at 18-16 with 7:41 left.
 
The teams traded misses after the timeout before a White steal led to the freshman hitting one of two at the free throw line before an LCU jumper in the paint and a WT turnover that led to a Chaps drive down the baseline for a layup to take the 20-19 lead with 4:39 left, the Buffs answered again from long range as Dumars found Gatewood but LCU resoponded again with a layup with 3:56 left to head into the last media timeout of the half with the game tied at 22-22. Dumars connected twice from the charity stripe followed two possessions later by a fast break three by the Garland native followed by a Chaps turnover that turned into a Chavlovich fast break layup to run the lead to 29-24, LCU would take the momentum into the break as they scored on their next possession to cut the lead to 29-26 heading into the locker room.
 
The Buffs went 10-of-29 from the floor in the first half including 5-of-21 from deep and 4-for-7 from the free throw line to shoot 34.5% with four turnovers, seven assists and 17 total rebounds (13 defensive, 4 defensive). Gatewood led the way individually at the half with seven points followed by Dumars with six and Chavlovich with five while White grabbed five rebounds.
 
The teams traded buckets to start the second half as Dumars connected on a three point play following a steal and score to spark another WT run as the senior nailed one-of-two at the free throw line to run the lead to 33-28, the Chaps started a run of their own with a three in transition followed by a fast break layup off of a WT turnover before the Buffs responded with scored on their next two possessions to take the 36-33. A Lubbock Christian miss led to Dumars finding Gatewood in the paint for the floater to head into a media timeout with WT leading 38-33 with 15:27 on the clock.
 
The teams traded points after the break as Dumars hit a pull-up three at the top of the key to take the 42-35 lead before the Chaps responded with a three point play off of an offensive rebound to head into the under-12 minute media timeout with the Buffs leading 42-38 with 11:54 left. An LCU illegal screen after the timeout allowed the Buffs to extend their led on a Chavlovich long ball before Dumars committed his fourth foul of the game to allow LCU to hit a pair from the charity stripe to cut the lead to 45-40, Gatewood found Ball on the baseline for a floater before the Chaps hit two more free throws on the other end with 10:06 left.
 
Ball connected on the turnaround jumper followed by an LCU turnover that led to a White tip-in on a Ball missed jumper in the paint as the Chaps committed another turnover on their end of the court to force an LCU timeout with the Buffs leading 51-42 with 8:58 remaining. Lubbock Christian nailed a baseline jumper to stop the WT run but Rylan Gerber would grab a big offensive rebound and get fouled heading into a media timeout with 7:59 left and WT leading 51-44, the Dumas native would hit one-of-two from the line followed by LCU getting one back on the charity stripe before Chavlovich found Gatewood on a floater in the lane at 54-45.
 
Gatewood would add one at the line a possession later before the Chaps hit a three at the top of the key to cut the lead back to single digits with 6:22 left followed by a WT illegal screen that led to an LCU free throw to make it 55-49 with 5:56 left in the game. Jeff Bonner hit one-of-two at the line before the Chaps answered with a layup to hit four of their previous five attempts at 56-51, Gatewood connected on a pair from the line followed by a charge call on the Buffs that allowed LCU to hit one from the line before a WT turnover that led to a Chaps fast break layup at 58-54 with 4:22 left. Gatewood continued to play well as the senior responded with an acrobatic layup to run the lead back to six points headed into a WT timeout with the Buffs leading 60-54 with 4:01 left.
 
The Chaps would answer again with a layup right before the final media timeout of the game with 3:29 left as the Buffs continued to lead 60-56 followed by Dumars hitting one-of-two from the line, the Chaps registered another layup to cut the lead to 61-58 before Gatewood struck again with the pull-up jumper in the paint with 1:59 left. Bonner came up with a big defensive rebound on a missed LCU long ball as the teams traded misses before a big Chaps turnover with 45 seconds remaining that forced LCU to start fouling, Dumars stepped to the line with 26.5 left and knocked down two followed by White drawing a charge on the defensive end with 15.5 remaining. Dumars was fouled again as he hit two more with the Chaps attempting one last long ball that couldn't find the mark as Gatewood came away with the defensive rebound to end the game, 67-58.
 
The Buffs were led offensively by Dumars with 19 points including going 11-of-15 from the free throw line followed by Gatewood with 18 on the night while White led all players with 12 rebounds with Chavlovich dishing out five assists in the win. West Texas A&M went 21-of-54 from the floor including 7-of-31 from deep and 18-of-28 from the free throw line to shoot 38.9% on the night with 36 rebounds, 13 assists, eight steals and 12 turnovers.
 
Lubbock Christian was led by A.J. Luckey with a game high 23 points as he went 8-of-13 from the floor followed by Ridrell Holman and Isaac Cardona with eight points each on the night, Cardona registered 10 rebounds in the game to lead LCU while Luckey, Holman and Marcus Arrington dishing out three assists each. The Chaps went 21-of-48 from the floor including 4-of-15 from long range and 12-of-20 from the free throw line to shoot 43.8% with 32 rebounds, 12 assists, four steals and 17 turnovers in the game.
 
The Buffs will take a 10 day break before their next contest as they host the Cavaliers of St. Gregory's on Saturday, December 13^th with tipoff set for 4:00 p.m. at the First United Bank Center in Canyon. St. Gregory's sits at 4-4 overall with a matchup against NAIA #12 ranked Oklahoma Christian tomorrow night in Shawnee, Oklahoma.