CANYON, Texas – Joel Murray scored 14 of his game-high 26 points in the second half as No. 3 West Texas A&M extended their home win streak to 45 games with a 84-71 victory over No. 21 Dallas Baptist on Friday night. The Buffs improved to 3-0 overall and 1-0 in Lone Star Conference play after shooting 42.2 percent from the floor, 25.0 percent from 3-point range and 88.5 percent from the free throw line

Murray went over 20 points for the 22^nd time in his career with a game-high 26 points going 7-of-15 from the floor and 11-of-12 from the free throw line. The junior also had seven rebounds and a team-high five assists. Ugo Obineke had a season-best 16 points and four rebounds with Qua Grant chipping in 13 points, six rebounds and three assists. John Brown scored 10 of WT's 23 bench points to go along seven rebounds.

The Buffs got off to another slow start as they trailed by as many six in the opening four minutes before Obineke connected on the first of his three 3-pointers at the 15:57 mark to make it 10-7 in favor of the Patriots. The teams continued to trade baskets over the next five minutes before WT took their second lead of the game, 23-22, with an 8-0 run capped off with another three from Obineke.

WT saw themselves trailing by two, 35-33, with less than five minutes left in the first half before they erupted for a 7-2 run to retake the lead. Brown tied the game with a dunk on a nice assist from Murray followed by four straight points from the junior All-American. Grant finished the half with five straight points including a layup at the buzzer to give WT a 45-39 after 20 minutes of action.

DBU went on a 12-6 run to open the second half and take a 52-51 lead. WT's defense tightened up with Grant getting a fast breakup layup following a steal from Murray and another dunk from Brown. The Patriots continued to battle as Chandler Jacobs tied the game at 57-57 at 12:40 with an old-fashioned 3-point play.

On the following possession, WT forced another turnover which resulted in a Jon'il Fugett layup to kickstart a 13-0 run. Following a media timeout, J. Fugett scoffed another layup followed by four straight free throws from Murray. JT Warren connected on a 3-pointer from the corner to force a DBU timeout and make it 68-57. Obineke finished off the run off with a pair free throws. 

The lead would reach a game-high 14, 72-58, with under eight minutes remaining in regulation on a layup from Murray out of the under 8-minute media timeout. WT would see their lead to single digits in the final minutes but scored the final five points of the game to push their overall win streak to 26 games. 

The Buffs and Patriots will face off tomorrow at the FUBC. Tip is scheduled for 4 p.m.