CANYON, Texas – No. 7 West Texas A&M opened the 2019-20 season with a 99-89 overtime victory over No. 6 Lincoln Memorial at the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic in St. Joseph, Mo. behind a career-high 27 points from sophomore guard Joel Murray.

The Buffs got off to a strong start in the opening game of the season jumping out to a 17-9 lead in the opening 6:30 minutes behind five points from Derrick Geddis. A Murray 3-pointer at 11:07 pushed the lead to nine points, 22-13, before the Railsplitters responded with four straight points.

Following three free throws from Jordan Collins to make it 30-22 in favor of WT, LMU went on a 21-6 run over the next 5:10 minutes to take a 43-36 lead with under four minutes to play. Murray found his rhythm in the final two minutes of the half scoring the final seven points to pull the Buffs within one, 47-46, after 20 minutes of action. 

The second half opened with the teams trading baskets including a 3-pointer from Jon'il Fugett to tie the game at 51-all at 16:16. Fugett would hit another jumper two minutes later to spark a 13-4 run for the Buffs pushing their lead to 67-59 with under 10 minutes remaining in regulation. 

The Railsplitters responded with a run of their own to tie the game at 73-all at 4:34 on Cameron Henry's layup. The lead would change three times over the next three minutes with Murray hitting a 3-pointer to give the Buffs a 80-78 lead at the two-minute mark.

Qua Grant's layup with 34 seconds remaining tied the game at 83-83 before Courvoisier McCauley hit one of LMU's three 3-pointer with five seconds to help the Railsplitters retake the lead, 86-83. LMU's celebration was short lived as Grant hit his own 3-pointer with a second remaining to send the game into overtime. 

Grant continued his hot shooting in the overtime period as the sophomore scored five of WT's 13 points as they won their fourth straight season opener and second straight in overtime. 

Four Buffs finished in double figures, led by Murray's 27 points and four assists. Geddis, Grant and Fugett also reached double figures with Geddis scoring a career-high 19 points including three 3-pointers. Grant finished with 21 points marking the 11^th time in his career he has scored 20-plus in a game. 

The Buffs return to action tomorrow afternoon at 3:15 p.m. against USC Aiken. The Pacers dropped their season opener, 77-68, to Davenport. Live stats and video (pay-per-view) will be available on GoBuffsGo.com.