CANYON, Texas – West Texas A&M handed the Lions of Texas A&M-Commerce their first conference loss of the season on Thursday night as the No. 11 Buffs registered a 79-69 victory in front of their home crowd at the First United Bank Center. WT advances to 15-2 overall while the Lions move to 10-2 with each program standing 2-1 in Lone Star Conference play.
 
Zach Toussaint led the Buffs offense with his sixth 20-point career game as the Johnsburg, Ill. product shot 6-for-15 from the floor, 5-for-6 at the charity stripe with three 3-pointers while collecting a season-high four assists.  Larry Wise was the second-leading scorer with 19 points while Dalin Williams brought down a game-high eight rebounds. 
 
The Buffs and Lions went back-and-forth in the opening 10 minutes of play with neither team taking a substantial lead until Kavon Booker's free throws kicked off a 13-0 run to make it 31-18 at the 5:03 mark.  TAMUC strung together its own run to make it a five-point game, 33-28, but shots at the charity stripe from Williams and Toussaint ended the drought.
 
With 46-seconds left in the half, Toussaint drained his second 3-pointer of the night to push the Buffs lead out to nine until Carson Tuttle drove up the lane for a 39-32 score at the intermission.
 
Kavon Booker led off scoring in the second half with a layup followed by jumper from Wise to extend the lead back to double-digits.  Toussaint and Wise each posted shots from beyond the arc to give the Buffs a 15-point lead, their largest of the night. 
 
TAMUC continued to chip at WT's lead to bring the score within six, but big shots by Booker and Hayden Blankley gave the Buffs their 10^th straight victory over the Lions. 
 
The Buffs return to the FUBC on Saturday, Jan. 8 for the programs second meeting with UT Tyler with game time set for 4 p.m.  The Patriots are 9-1 on the season and 1-0 in conference play after Thursday's game against Cameron was postponed due to CoVID-19 protocols.