LAS VEGAS, New Mexico – The #22 Buffaloes of West Texas A&M ran their win streak to seven games during their first road contest in over three weeks on Saturday night as the rolled past the Cowboys of New Mexico Highlands, 82-55 at the John A. Wilson Center in Las Vegas, New Mexico. The Buffs improve to 12-1 overall for their best start to a season since 2011-12 while the Cowboys fall to 2-7 on the season. WT head coach Tom Brown picked up his 50^th career victory in Saturday night's win.
 
The teams traded free throws to start the game followed by a Carl White bucket and a Highlands miss from deep that led to White knocking down a trey from the wing at 7-2, Atem Bior answered with a layup to spark a 9-0 Cowboy run heading into the first media timeout of the night with 15:44 on the clock and Highlands leading 11-7. NMHU continued their run after the break as Dior hit one-of-two at the line followed by a WT miss and a Ron Lawton layup at 14-7, the Buffs stopped the Highlands run at 12-0 with a David Chavlovich layup before Joe Anaya answered with a long ball followed by a Jordan Evans three at 17-12 heading into a media timeout with 11:58 left in the half.
 
Evans connected from deep again after the break followed by a Highlands miss from deep and a White dunk to tie the game at 17-17, the teams traded misses before a Kieran Woods layup followed by a pair of Drew Evans buckets to give the Buffs the lead at 21-19 heading into a media timeout with 7:11 left. Ryan Quaid and Chavlovich added to the WT lead at the free throw line followed by a Skyler O'Laughlin slam at 27-19 to extend the WT run to 10-0, a Bior layup stopped the WT run followed by an O'Laughlin board-and-score before another Highlands bucket heading into a media timeout with 3:24 left.
 
D. Evans hit two free throws after the break followed by Ramone Atkins hitting two freebies before the teams traded misses followed by two Chavlovich free throws with just over a minute left in the half, the teams traded misses from deep before Jerrod Walton finished off the period with a layup as WT took a 35-25 lead into the locker room.
 
The Buffs were led at the break by D. Evans who went 3-of-5 from the floor and 1-of-1 from long range with nine points followed by White with seven and Chavlovich/O'Laughlin with six each. WT went 11-of-26 (42.3%) from the floor including 3-of-10 (30%) from deep and 10-of-10 (100%) from the free throw line to go along with 17 rebounds (five offensive, 12 defensive), two assists, six turnovers, no blocks and no steals.
 
Highlands went 9-of-27 (33.3%) from the floor in the first half including 2-of-9 (22.2%) from deep and 5-of-7 (71.4%) from the free throw line to go along with 14 rebounds (eight offensive, six defensive), three assists, five turnovers, no blocks and four steals. NMHU was led by Bior who went 3-of-5 from the floor and 3-of-5 from the charity stripe with nine points.
 
Chavlovich started off the scoring in the second half with a layup followed by a Highlands turnover and a White transition slam at 39-25, WT added to their lead with an O'Laughlin dunk followed by a Highlands free throw before J. Evans responded with a layup at 43-26. A Cowboys turnover led to another J. Evans bucket followed by Tommy Gove knocking down two free throws before a pair of layups by the Cowboys at 47-30, heading into a media timeout with 15:28 left.
 
Quaid and J. Evans added to the WT lead with buckets after the break followed by a Highlands foul as D. Evans extended the Buffalo lead to 53-30 at the free throw line, a Cowboy turnover led to a D. Evans long ball from the wing followed by a Roy Clayter jumper to stop the WT run before another D. Evans bucket and an Anaya trey at 58-35. O'Laughlin responded with a bucket followed by another Highlands long ball heading into a media timeout followed by a pair of Chavlovich freebies at 62-38, Bior knocked down a jumper followed by a WT turnover and a Highlands long ball but Eric Golightly Jr. answered with two free throws followed by another Highlands turnover and a Chavlovich long ball at 67-43.
 
The Cowboys hit two free throws followed by another Chavlovich long ball and a Highlands layup at 70-47 heading into a media timeout with 7:47 left, J. Evans hit a freebie after the break followed by a Highlands turnover that led to a D. Evans bucket at 76-47. The Cowboys missed a dunk that led to a J. Evans transition three to force a Highlands timeout with 5:57 left, Highlands hit two at the free throw line followed by a WT turnover and a NMHU dunk before another Buffalo turnover and a Highlands long ball at 76-54 heading into the final media timeout of the night with 3:48 left.
 
Garrett Brockman hit two at the line after the break followed by NMHU missing twice at the line but the Buffs couldn't convert as they missed from deep at 78-54, the teams traded misses before Brockman connected from deep with just under two minutes left. Highlands hit one-of-two at the line followed by turnovers on both ends before Rylan Gerber hit a freebie to run out the clock as WT took the 82-55 win.
 
The Buffs went 26-of-54 (48.1%) from the floor including 8-of-23 (34.8%) from deep and 22-of-24 (91.7%) from the free throw line to go along with 32 rebounds (nine offensive, 23 defensive), four assists, 11 turnovers, one block and five steals. D. Evans went 7-of-9 from the floor and 2-of-2 from deep to lead the Buffs with 20 points followed by Chavlovich (16), J. Evans (11) and O'Laughlin (10).
 
The Cowboys went 19-of-54 (35.2%) from the field including 6-of-20 (30%) from deep and 11-of-20 (55%) from the charity stripe to go along with 26 rebounds (12 offensive, 14 defensive), seven assists, 13 turnovers, one block and four steals. Bior led Highlands with 13 points as he went 5-of-8 from the floor and 3-of-4 from the free throw line to go along with five rebounds.
 
UP NEXT
The Buffs hit the road next weekend as they take part in the 2016 South Point Division II Holiday Hoops Classic at the South Point Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. WT takes on #13 Western Washington on Sunday afternoon at 3:15 p.m. CT followed by a Monday afternoon matchup with Rollins with tipoff scheduled for 1 p.m. CT.