CANYON, Texas – No. 5 West Texas A&M tied a school record with their 29th straight win at the First United Bank Center on Saturday afternoon in Canyon. Sophomore Qua Grant led all scorers with 27 points as the Buffs tied the previous record from 2015-18 with their 93-78 win over Eastern New Mexico in their Lone Star Conference opener.
After going down 3-2 in the opening two minutes, the Buffs went on a 10-0 run over the next two minutes led by four points from Grant. John Brown started the run with a layup off a nice dish from Jon'il Fugett followed by a pair of fast break layups from Grant.
The Greyhounds closed the gap to three, 20-17, with under 11 minutes left in the first half on a layup from Jose Serrano before WT would respond with another run, 7-0, to return the lead to double digits highlighted by a three from Eric Mosley.
The lead would get high as 17 points, 46-29, at the 2:54 mark following a 12-3 run that last nearly four minutes. Fugett made his only 3-pointer of the game to start the run with Zach Toussaint and Grant also connecting from downtown as the Buffs lead 49-36 at halftime.
The opening minutes of the second half featured the teams trading baskets before the Buffs went cold from the field allowing ENMU cut the lead to nine points, 67-58, at 9:27 on a 7-1 run. WT was able to maintain the lead after only making four shots over the next four minutes before putting the game away with another 10-0 run. Joel Murray was on-target with his step back jumper followed by six free throws from Grant as sixth-year head coach Tom Brown improved to 11-1 all-time against the Greyhounds.
Grant reached the 20-point plateau for the fourth time this season with a game-high 27 points after going 8-of-15 from the floor and 9-of-11 from the free throw line to go along with his seven steals. Murray had 22 points going 7-of-13 from the floor and 3-of-6 from three-point range with Geddis pulling down a team-high eight rebounds.
WT return to the FUB for the annual Pak-A-Sak Thanksgiving Classic on Nov. 29-30 where they will play Oklahoma Panhandle State and University of the Southwest.
