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CANYON, Texas – Senior Antjuan Ball maneuvered around a defender in the air and laid the ball in off the glass with just 1.8 seconds left to give the West Texas A&M men's basketball team a thrilling 83-82 victory over Cameron in its Lone Star Conference home opener at the First United Bank Center in Canyon on Saturday evening. The Buffs were led in scoring by senior Tez Dumars who poured in 23 points to give head coach Tom Brown his first LSC victory. WT now improves to 10-5 on the season and 1-1 in league play. With the loss, Cameron falls to 9-5 (1-1, LSC) on the year.
 
WT finished the night shooting 28-for-60 (.467) from the field while the Aggies went 32-for-61 (.525). The Buffs would once again do damage from long range, going 14-for-27 (.519). They would manage to pull out the win despite a 45-26 rebounding disadvantage. The Aggies would also hold a 54-24 advantage in points in the paint and 19-6 advantage in second-chance points. Saturday evening's contest featured seven ties and 10 lead changes, the largest being by WT at 12.
 
"Even though we were pretty heavily outrebounded tonight, these guys are continuing to improve on the glass," noted Brown. "It's hard to get that energy to play at that level and at times we didn't have it for the full 40 minutes tonight. But they sure brought it in the final minutes of the game and we are proud of these guys."

The Buffs shot well to begin tonight's contest as freshman David Chavlovich and senior Miles Gatewood drained 3-pointers from the far corner to give WT an early 6-2 lead. CU quickly answered back to take the 8-6 lead with a few buckets capped off by a put-back slam dunk by Deondre Ray at 17:44. The Aggies kept scoring, forcing a timeout on the WT bench after a 10-0 run.
 
Chavlovich would end the run with another triple from the opposite corner, sending WT into the first media timeout trailing 12-9 with 15:18 left in the half. The Buffs would then retake the lead with a 3-pointer from freshman Carl White after a big block on the opposite end, making the score 15-14. On the next possession, Dumars would draw a foul from beyond the arc after draining the shot while falling down, completing the four-point play with the free-throw.
 
The Aggies came back with a 6-0 run to take the lead once again; however, WT took it right back with back-to-back 3-pointers by junior Garrett Brockman and redshirt-freshman Rylan Gerber to go up 25-20 heading into the under-eight media timeout.
 
Down the stretch in the first frame, the Aggies would roll to an 8-0 run to lead it 34-32 but the Buffs would score seven of the final nine points in the half to retake the lead again. That would send WT into the break up 40-36.
 
Despite being down on the scoreboard, the Aggies shot 16-for-27 (.593) from the floor compared to 13-for-32 (.406) for the Buffs. WT would also go 7-for-14 (.500) from beyond the arc. Leading the way for the Buffs was Dumars with 14 points off of 5-for-7 shooting. Chavlovich would have a big half as well with eight points, going 2-for-4 from deep, along with three assists and three steals.
 
The Aggies would use a 6-0 run and score 11 of first 16 points in the second half to head into the opening media timeout up 47-45. But Gatewood would get the hot hand and knock down two 3-pointers to put WT back up 52-47 with 13:36 on the clock, forcing a timeout on the Aggie bench. That would open up a 12-4 run for the Buffs as White came up with two-straight triples of his own followed by a big stuff on the defensive end the following play, sending them into the under-12 media timeout up 58-51.
 
WT would hold the momentum as Dumars drained a triple of his own, helping the Buffs build a 12-point lead, going up 65-53. Both teams would trade buckets on the next few possessions before CU would roll to a 9-0 run heading into the final media timeout, cutting WT's lead to two and making the score 72-70 with 3:44 left on the clock.
 
The Buffs then scored the next four points out of the timeout to go up 76-70, but a few free-throws would cut the lead to three with 1:30 left. The final minute would be intense inside the FUBC as Ray knocked down a 3-pointer to tie the game at 76-76 with only a minute remaining. Gatewood would answer immediately on WT's next possession with a 3-pointer from the top of the key to put the Buffs back on top.
 
Late mistakes would nearly do the Buffs in as they were called on a close five-second call on the inbound when up by two and 16 seconds on the clock while trying to call for a timeout. Then they were called for a foul on a 3-point shot. Cameron Lee would put the visitors up by one with seven seconds left after draining all three free-throws. But the Buffs would take advantage on the final possession. Gatewood found Ball on layup with 1.8 seconds left to give WT the one-point win.
 
WT now leads the all-time series with the Aggies, 29-12, and end a two-game losing skid in the series.
 
The Buffs will be back in action on Wednesday, Jan. 14 as they host No. 19 Angelo State in a midweek LSC contest from the FUBC in Canyon. The Buffs and Rams are scheduled to tip off at 7:30 p.m. WT holds a 38-21 all-time advantage in the series; however, lost both meetings last season. Live stats and a free video webstream will be available courtesy of West Texas A&M Athletic Media Relations. Fans can also tune in to 98.7 Jack FM to catch the game as well as follow @wtathletics on Twitter.