CANYON, Texas – West Texas A&M remained perfect at home on Saturday afternoon but it wasn't easy as a free throw with 0.3 seconds remaining by Southern Nazarene sent the two teams into overtime but the Buffs held on for a wild, 82-81 win over the visiting Crimson Storm to wrap-up the 2016 Pak-A-Sak WT Thanksgiving Classic at the First United Bank Center in Canyon, Texas. The Buffs improve to 8-1 overall while SNU falls to 2-4 on the season.
 
The Storm started off the scoring with a layup before Carl White answered with a three from the corner, the teams traded misses before a putback dunk by SNU's Noah Starkey but David Chavlovich responded with a floater in the lane at 5-4. The Storm hit one-of-two at the line followed by another dunk by SNU heading into a media timeout with 15:43 left, SNU hit one more at the line after the break followed by a WT turnover before a White rejection led to a Ryan Quaid old fashioned three-point play at 9-8. The teams traded misses again before another Quaid bucket and a Southern Nazarene miss from deep that led to a Chavlovich bucket at 13-8, Quaid stole away another pass that led to a Chavlovich layup to force a SNU timeout with WT leading 15-8 with 13:06 left.
 
The teams traded turnovers before a SNU layup stopped the Buffalo run, another WT miss led to a Starkey jump hook in the lane followed by misses on both ends before another Starkey bucket at 15-14. WT missed from deep as the Storm used a board-and-score to force a Buffs timeout with 10:08 left and SNU leading 16-15. Eric Golightly Jr. knocked down a long ball from the wing followed by an SNU free throw and misses on both ends before a Crimson Storm turnover led to a Joseph Prince floater in the lane at 21-17, SNU answered with a jumper before Prince hit a three from the wing followed by a Storm bucket but WT answered with an O'Laughlin slam from White. The Storm answered with a board-and-score before O'Laughlin grabbed an offensive board with an SNU foul heading into a media timeout with 6:19 left and WT leading 26-23.
 
White hit two at the line after the break followed by a Storm layup and a WT miss from deep before Jnonathan Dunn hit a baseline jumper to cut the lead to 28-27, an SNU steal near midcourt led to a pair of freebies by Quaylon Newton before Drew Evans answered with a layup to run the WT lead to 30-28 with 4:31 left heading into the final media timeout of the half. A jump ball gave the ball back to the Storm after the break as LB Willis connected on a floater in the lane to tie the game before Chavlovich knocked down a pair of freebies at 32-30, O'Laughlin grabbed a big board that led to the senior going one-of-two at the line. The teams traded misses followed by another SNU turnover but the Buffs couldn't convert as a foul but a miss at the line by the Storm led to a Chavlovich pull-up three at 36-30, the Storm answered with a bucket heading into the locker room for halftime with WT leading 36-32.
 
The Buffs went 12-of-32 (37.5%) from the floor including 4-of-17 (23.5%) from long range and 8-of-12 (66.7%) from the free throw line to go along with 20 rebounds (eight offensive, 12 defensive), seven assists, six turnovers, four blocks and three steals. Chavlovich went 4-of-9 from the floor and 2-of-2 from the free throw line to lead the Buffs with 11 point at the break followed by White with six to go along with five rebounds.
 
Southern Nazarene went 14-of-31 (45.2%) from the floor including 0-of-4 (0%) from deep and 4-of-9 (44.4%) from the free throw line to go along with 23 rebounds (eight offensive, 15 defensive), three assists, nine turnovers, one block and six steals. Dunn went 5-of-6 from the field including 1-of-2 from the charity stripe to lead the Storm with 11 points at the break followed by Starkey with eight to go along with seven rebounds.
 
Jordan Evans hit one-of-two at the line to start the second half before SNU answered with a Starkey slam before O'Laughlin hit one-of-two at the line at 38-34, Willis found Starkey for an alley-oop followed by misses on both ends before Chavlovich knocked down a three from the wing at 41-39. White rejected an SNU layup followed by misses on both ends before Chavlovich found White under the bucket for a layup but SNU responded with a three from the wing at 43-42 but a Storm three-point play sent the teams into the media timeout with 15:08 left and SNU leading 44-43.
 
Dunn finished off a three-point play after the break followed by an SNU foul as Golightly Jr. hit two freebies but the Storm answered back with one at the line to take the lead at 46-45, J. Evans knocked down a three from the top of the key followed by an SNU bucket down low and misses on both ends but a WT technical foul that allowed by the Storm to hit a free throw at 48-50. The Storm turned the ball over with an illegal screen but WT couldn't convert under their basket as Willis finished with a layup at 48-52, WT missed again followed by turnovers on both ends and a Storm offensive foul heading into a media timeout with 11:29 left and SNU leading 52-48.
 
White hit two at the line after the break followed by a Storm turnover and foul as Golightly Jr. hit two at the line to tie the game at 52-52, the teams traded misses before SNU hit one-of-two at the line followed by two freebies by Chavlovich and a Garrett Brockman steal with 8:59 left. The Storm missed two at the line followed by a freebie by White before Micah Speight hit a three from the top of the key to give SNU a 56-55 lead, Chavlovich hit a pull-up baseline jumper followed by SNU buckets on back-to-back trips down the floor heading into a media timeout with 5:49 left and SNU leading 57-60.
 
Starkey hit two free throws after the timeout before Chavlovich found Golightly Jr. for a layup at 62-59, Speight answered with a three from the corner late in the shot clock before another Chavlovich bucket headed into a WT timeout with 4:54 left and the Storm leading 65-61. The teams traded turnovers before Willis finished on a fast break layup followed by a Buffs miss and another Crimson Storm bucket at 69-61, the Buffs were called for a charge heading into the final media timeout of the game and SNU leading 69-61 with 3:07 left.
 
Brockman swung the momentum with a steal after the timeout as Chavlovich finished off a three-point play to cut the lead to 69-64, the Storm grabbed a big offensive board to get a fresh shot clock but White forced another SNU turnover and foul as Tommy Gove hit two at the line but a foul on the attempt to send Starkey to the line as the sophomore missed both with 2:03 left. J. Evans was fouled on a trey attempt as the junior hit two to force an SNU timeout with 1:49 left and the Storm leading 69-68. WT missed their third attempt before White forced a jump-ball to keep the possession with the Storm, White rejected a pair of shots that led to a Chavlovich jumper to give WT the lead at 70-69 with 1:01 left.
 
J. Evans gave the Buffs the ball back with a big steal but WT couldn't convert as the Storm retook the momentum with a Deshon Portley three from the wing headed into an SNU timeout with 15.3 seconds left and the Storm leading 72-70, J. Evans brought the FUBC crowd to its feet with a three ball from the wing headed into a timeout with 7.2 seconds left. The crowd was silenced at the end of the game as a Crimson Storm shot attempt bounced toward the corner of the court with less than a second remaining as SNU attempted a shot from near out-of-bounds with a whistle in-sync with the buzzer, the officials reviewed the monitor and put .3 seconds on the clock and awarded the Storm three free throws as Willis hit one-of-three to tie the game at 73-73 headed into overtime.
 
Golightly Jr. hit two free throws to start the extra period followed by a Crimson Storm miss and foul as Golightly Jr. hit one-of-two at the line at 76-73, White rejected another SNU attempt but gave the ball back with a turnover as Starkey hit one-of-two freebies to cut the lead to 76-74 with 3:44 left. The Buffs missed from deep before Willis connected on a bucket at 76-76, Chavlovich found Quaid under the bucket for a layup but WT couldn't convert a three-point play but SNU gave the ball right back with a travel with 2:34 left. Quaid grabbed a big offensive board that led to J. Evans hitting two freebies followed by a SNU turnover and foul to force a Storm timeout with WT leading 80-76 with 1:44 left.
 
WT's fourth all-time leading scorer hit two at the line followed by a Speight board and score to cut the lead to 82-78, the Buffs gave the ball back with an offensive foul as Starkey hit one-of-two at the line followed by a WT miss from deep and a C.J. White board-and-score to cut the lead to 82-81 with 9.8 second left. SNU was forced to foul on the inbound as WT missed both at the line but the Storm missed a putback attempt at the buzzer to give the Buffs an 82-81 win.
 
Chavlovich led all players with 27 points as the junior went 9-of-25 from the floor and a perfect 7-of-7 from the free throw line followed by Golightly Jr. with 13 points while J. Evans and White contributed 11 points each while White grabbed eight rebounds. WT went 22-of-65 (33.8%) from the floor including 7-of-29 (24.1%) from deep and 31-of-45 (68.9%) from the free throw line to go along with 39 rebounds (17 offensive, 22 defensive), 14 assists, nine turnovers, nine blocks and nine steals in the win.
 
Southern Nazarene was led by Starkey with 16 points and 12 rebounds for a double-double followed by White and Dunn with 14 points each while White grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds for a double-double of his own. SNU went 31-of-64 (48.4%) from the field including 5-of-14 (35.7%) from deep and 14-of-29 (48.3%) from the free throw line to go along with 53 rebounds (18 offensive, 35 defensive), 11 assists, 21 turnovers, two blocks and six steals.
 
UP NEXT
The Buffs open up Lone Star Conference action on Thursday night as they host the Mustangs of Western New Mexico with tipoff set for 7:30 p.m. at the First United Bank Center in Canyon. WNMU is in their first season as a member of the LSC and entered Saturday with an overall record of 1-3 as they take on New Mexico Highlands on Tuesday night in Las Vegas, New Mexico.