ORANGE, Calif. – For the second time in three season, the #4 Buffs of West Texas A&M went a perfect 3-0 at the D2CCA TipOff Classic with a 65-57 victory over Concordia (Calif.) on Sunday afternoon at Santiago Canyon College.

THE BASICS
The Matchup: West Texas A&M 65, Concordia (Calif.) 57
Records: West Texas A&M (3-0), Concordia (Calif.) (1-2)
Venue: Santiago Canyon College
Location: Orange, Calif.

The Buffs got off to a slow start for the second consecutive game as they trailed 5-0 before Gach Gach made three free throws at 17:49. Concordia would make a three-pointer on the next trip down the floor followed by a jumper from Ryan Quaid. Joel Murray would knock down WT's first three-pointer of the contest to make it 10-8 with less than 14 minute remaining followed by a two-minute scoring drought from both teams.

After allowing Chambers to hit a three at the 11-minute mark, WT would score five straight points to tie the game at 13-all. Qua Grant was good from beyond the arc before Joel Murray's steal resulted in a fast break layup for Brandon Hall. Concordia would score four straight points over the next minute to retake the lead but WT would respond with an 8-2 run of their own to go ahead for the first time in the game. Derrick Geddis scored his first points on a layup followed by another layup by Grant. Following a pair of missed shots from Concorida, Quad would score six straight points to stretch the lead to four points, 23-19.

The teams would trade basket over the next two minutes before Quaid went 1-of-2 from the free throw line to give the Buffs a five-point lead, 28-23. Concordia would score on a jumper from Austin Clarke on their final possession of the first half but Gach answered right back with a layup on an assist from Murray with two seconds remaining to send the Buffs into halftime with a 30-25 lead.

Neither team made a basket in the first two minutes of the second half until Gach connected from beyond the arc at 18:00 stretching the lead to eight points, 33-25. Concordia would also score their first bucket of the half on a three from Clarke Grant would get fouled on the next possession going 1-of-2 from the charity stripe to make it 34-28 before Chambers hit another three for the Eagles.

Murray's layup with 16:11 remaining the game sparked a 12-2 run for the Buffs as they extended their lead to 13 points, 46-33. Following a pair of free throws from Chambers, Quaid would convert a three-point play the old-fashioned way followed by a jumper by Geddis. The Houston, Texas native would connect another jumper followed by a three from Jordan Collins. The lead would reach as high as 14 points when Collins hit his second three of the half with a little more than 10 minutes left.

A 4-0 run by Concordia cut the lead to single digits, 53-45, but the freshman duo of Grant and Murray responded with four straight points of their own. Concordia would get the lead down to 57-51 with less than five minutes remaining but six straight points on a pair of free throws from Murray, a layup from Grant and dunk from Drew Evans put the lead back to 12. The Eagles would make one more push to get back into the game in the final minutes but the WT defense wouldn't allow it as the improved to 6-0 all-time in the D2CCA TipOff Classic.  

WT finished the game going 24-of-55 (43.6%) from the floor including 5-of-25 (20.0%) from three-point range and 12-of-16 (75.0%( from the charity stripe. Grant was the leading scorer for the second consecutive game with 14 points going 6-of-9 from the floor while pulling down a team-high six rebounds. Quaid had 12 points of his own with five rebounds and a block.

The Buffs return to action on Friday, Nov. 9, against Western State in Gunnison, Colo. followed by a game against Adams State on Saturday, Nov. 10. In Alamosa, Colo.