WICHITA FALLS, Texas – Qua Grant scored 19 of his game-high 22 points in the second half as No. 7 West Texas A&M defeated Midwestern State 75-64 on Thursday evening at D.L. Ligon Coliseum. The Buffs improve to 5-0 with the victory and have now won six straight in the series for the first time in program history.
The Buffs saw themselves trailing 11-9 at the 12:42 mark of the first half before going on a 13-2 run over the next seven minutes holding the Mustangs to a single basket. John Brown got the run started with a tip-in following a missed layup with Derrick Geddis getting another tip-in on the following WT possession. A Geddis jumper was followed by a 3-pointer from Eric Mosley after Joel Murray pulled down an offensive rebound. Grant would finish the run with an easy layup to make it 22-13 following one of Geddis' three steals.
A Brown jumper at 4:30 would push the lead over double digits for the first time, 27-16, with Zach Toussaint hitting from beyond the arc on another Murray offensive rebounds. The Mustangs would get within six in the final two minutes but a pair of free throws from Murray in the final minute gave WT a 32-24 lead at halftime.
WT missed their first three shots of the second half as MSU Texas got cut the lead to three, 32-29, on a 3-pointer from D'Monta Harris. Grant would score four straight points in the paint over the next 40 seconds to keep the Mustangs at bay.
The home team wouldn't go away as they had a chance to tie the game at 37-all at the 15-minute mark but couldn't connect from deep before Jon'il Fugett hit a jumper to push it to 39-34 and spark a 7-2 run for the Buffs. Grant scored all seven points on the run including an old-fashioned 3-point play to push the lead back to double digits, 46-36, at 12:45.
Another Mustang run with under seven minutes remaining cut the WT lead to five, 55-50, on a 3-pointer from Darius Thompson. Another three from the senior guard kept the game close until Toussaint connected from deep at 3:45 to make it 67-57. Grant would finish Mustangs off scoring six of WT's final eight points to keep their perfect start to the season alive.
Grant went over 20 points for third time this season and 13th time in his career going 8-of-18 from the floor and 6-of-8 from the free throw line while pulling down seven rebounds with four steals. Murray also reached double figures with 17 points to go along with a career-high nine rebounds. Toussaint was 3-of-5 from 3-point range marking the second time this season he has three makes from downtown in a single game.
WT opens Lone Star Conference play on Saturday, Nov. 23, when they host rival Eastern New Mexico at the First United Bank Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m.
