CANYON, Texas – West Texas A&M continued their best start to a season since 2012-13 as they remained unbeaten with a 92-77 victory over the visiting Cowboys of New Mexico Highlands in front of 782 fans at the First Untied Bank Center in Canyon during the LSC/RMAC Challenge. The Buffs improve to 5-0 overall while the Cowboys fall to 0-2 on the season.
 
Jordan Evans hit a freebie before the opening tipoff for a pregame technical foul due to a lineup issue before the Cowboys registered their first bucket on a layup at 1-2, Skyler O'Laughlin's board and score gave the Buffs the lead again followed by misses on both ends before another Highlands layup at 3-4. Joseph Prince knocked down a three on an inbound play followed by a NMHU bucket to tie the game before a Ryan Quaid bucket gave WT the 8-6 lead, the Cowboys answered with a layup off of an inbound play followed by a David Chavlovich long ball at 11-8 heading into a media timeout with 15:50 left.
 
Highlands knocked down two free throws after the break followed by a Prince jumper and a Cowboys turnover that led to a Jerrod Walton bucket at 15-10, WT missed two free throws but the Cowboys missed from deep as Prince found Evans on the give-and-go to force a NMHU timeout with WT leading 17-10 with 13:28 left. Highlands hit two freebies before Evans knocked down a three from the top of the key followed by a NMHU miss and two O'Laughlin free throws at 22-12. The Cowboys answered with a layup followed by misses on both ends before Evans knocked down a baseline jumper before a NMHU bucket forced a WT timeout with 10:32 left and the Buffs leading 24-16.
 
O'Laughlin continued his hot start with a bucket followed by another Cowboys miss that led to a Chavlovich bucket at 28-16, Highlands answered followed by a WT offensive foul as Highlands hit two more free throws to cut the lead to 28-20. The Buffs missed from deep followed by a Cowboys bucket and foul as a three-point play cut the lead to 28-23, Chavlovich found Drew Evans for a layup followed by a NMHU miss and foul heading into a media timeout with 7:51 left.
 
Evans knocked down two more free throws after the break followed by a Highlands turnover and a D. Evans three ball from the corner at 35-23, the Cowboys answered with an old-fashioned three-point play before Prince knocked down a transition long ball at 38-26. The teams traded turnovers before Chavlovich hit two freebies followed by a Highlands bucket before another NMHU foul that led to a D. Evans free throw at 41-28, Highlands hit two free throws followed by a Prince pull-up jumper to run the lead to 43-30 before misses on both ends and a transition J. Evans layup at 45-30 heading into a media timeout with 3:41 left in the half.
 
The teams traded misses after the break before NMHU ended their scoring drought with a layup followed by misses and turnovers on both ends before a WT foul let the Cowboys hit two more at the line to cut the lead to 45-34, Prince connected on a floater in the lane followed by another Highlands three-point play to cut the lead to 47-37. Chavlovich was fouled with just over eight second left as the junior hit one-of-two to send the teams into the locker room with the Buffs leading 48-37.
 
The Buffs were led at the break by Prince and J. Evans with 12 points each followed by Chavlovich with eight while J. Evans and O'Laughlin grabbed four rebounds each. WT went 17-of-30 (56.7%) from the floor including 5-of-12 (41.7%) from deep and 9-of-13 (69.2%) from the free throw line to go along with 19 rebounds (four offensive, 15 defensive), 13 assists, six turnovers, one block and four steals.
 
New Mexico Highlands was led by Kieran Woods with 10 points followed by Ron Lawton with nine at the break to go along with seven rebounds. The Cowboys went 12-of-33 (36.4%) from the floor including 0-0 (0%) from deep and 13-of-15 (86.7%) from the free throw line to go along with 19 rebounds (seven offensive, 12 defensive), six assists, seven turnovers, one block and five steals.
 
Walton started the second half scoring with a jumper followed a possession later by a Chavlovich three-ball to force a Highlands timeout with 19:10 left and the Buffs leading 53-37, the teams traded possessions before an O'Laughlin board and score with a NMHU foul as the senior completed the three-point play at 56-37. Garrett Brockman grabbed a defensive board that led to an O'Laughlin jumper followed by a Highlands turnover and another O'Laughlin board-and-score at 60-37, the Cowboys ended their scoring drought with a layup followed by a WT miss and a Highlands techingal foul given to the bench as J. Evans hit one-of-two headed into a media timeout with 15:48 left and WT leading 61-39.
 
The Cowboys hit two at the line after the break followed by a WT offensive foul that gave Highlands the possession, NMHU hit two more freebies followed by a Prince long ball from the wing with a foul to complete the four-point play at 64-43. The Cowboys went on a 7-1 run heading into a media timeout with 11:51 left and the Buffs leading 65-50. The teams traded free throws after the break before NMHU hit a trey from the wing to cut the lead to 68-56, Walton answered with a pair of freebies followed by points on both ends before Chavlovich added to his point total with a long ball at 75-61 with 7:32 left.
 
The Buffs added to their lead at the free throw line before a Highlands three-point play cut the WT lead to 79-68 with 4:02 remaining, Prince responded with a big layup and foul for a three-point play to stop the Cowboys momentum followed by an O'Laughlin slam at 84-68. The teams traded points again before Brockman knocked down a dagger from behind the arc at 90-71 with just under two minutes remaining. Highlands wouldn't go down without a fight as they scored six of the next eight points but the Buffs pulled out the 92-77 win to remain unbeaten.
 
The Buffs were led offensively by Chavlovich with 22 points as the Preseason All-American went 5-of-12 from the floor and 9-of-12 from the free throw line to run his career point total to 1,190 to move into seventh place all-time to pass former West Texas State standout Simmie Hill (1967-69 | 1,189 pts). WT went 28-of-57 (50.9%) from the floor including 9-of-27 (33.3%) from deep and 25-of-36 (69.4%) from the free throw line to go along with 39 rebounds (nine offensive, 30 defensive), 17 assists, 14 turnovers, two blocks and five steals.
 
New Mexico Highlands was led by Woods with 19 points followed by Lawton with 15 and Johnson with 11 while Lawton grabbed 10 rebounds for a double-double. The Cowboys went 23-of-58 (39.7%) from the floor including 1-of-8 (12.5%) from deep and 30-of-41 (73.2%) from the charity stripe to go along with 38 rebounds (12 offensive, 26 defensive), eight assists, 12 turnovers, two blocks and five steals in the loss.
 
UP NEXT
The Buffs hit the road next Thursday as they take on the Chaparrals of Lubbock Christian with tipoff set for 7 p.m. at the Rip Griffin Center in Lubbock, Texas. LCU enters Saturday with an overall record of 0-2 following a 80-78 loss to Regis on Friday night before falling to #21 Colorado School of Mines (78-74) on Saturday night during the RMAC/Heartland Challenge in Lubbock.