CANYON, Texas – West Texas A&M held a powerful Texas A&M-Commerce offense to just 290 yards of total offense but three turnovers doomed the Buffaloes in a 15-3 Lone Star Conference defeat on Saturday night at Buffalo Stadium in Canyon, Texas.
 
Nick Gerber finished the night going 12-of-25 thru the air with 98 yards and a pair of picks, Brandon Blair led the way on the ground with 60 yards while Caleb Ollison caught three passes for 27 yards. Taylyn Hickerson and JT Cavender registered nine tackles each for the Buffs followed by Chris Thomas with eight while Tobias Harris tallied five tackles to go along with an interception. It marks the first time that the Buffs have been held without an offensive touchdown since October 3rd of last season at SFA. 
 
The teams traded fumbles on their first offensive possession as the Buffs forced the TAMUC turnover on the five yard line to keep the Lions out of the endzone, WT would give the ball back as they were called for intentional grounding in the endzone for a safety and the 2-0 Commerce lead. 
 
TAMUC added to their lead on their next drive as a blocked punt turned into a 40-yard field goal by Jake Viguez to make it 5-0. Harris continued his strong performance on the defensive side of the ball as the Pflugerville native registered his fourth interception in the last two contests and the 16^th of his career to keep the Lions off of the board.
 
Both offense struggled to find a rhythm in the opening half as WT finished with just 86 yards in the first 30 minutes while Commerce finished the half with 180. TAMUC looked to add to their lead right before the half but a 51 yard attempt by Viguez was wide right.
 
The Lions took advantage of a 44 yard kickoff return to open the second half for great field position as Miklo Smalls capped off a six play drive with a nine yard scoring run to make it 12-0. WT looked to respond with a strong drive of their own as Cason Polivoda connected from 35 yards out to cut the TAMUC lead to 12-3.
 
The WT defense continued to impress as they held the Lions to just three points with a Hickerson sack stopping a TAMUC drive as Viguez connected from 42 yards out to make it 15-3. The WT offense moved down the field halfway thru the fourth quarter but an interception on fourth down gave the Lions the ball back with 7:50 left in the game. 
 
The Buffs made another defensive stop as WT took over on their own 14 yard line with 3:53 left, the Buffs converted a fourth and one on a Jordan Johnson rush followed by a 22 yard strike from Gerber to Noah Bogardus but an interception would end the drive as TAMUC ran out the clock for the 15-3 win.
 
The Buffs hit the road next weekend as they travel to South Texas to take on the Texas A&M-Kingsville Javelinas with kickoff set for 7 p.m. at Javelina Stadium.