LAKELAND, Fla. – No. 5 West Texas A&M left Florida 0-2 after falling to the Florida Southern Mocs, 92-90, at the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic. Sunday's upset marks the first time since 2015 the Buffs led off the season with a pair of losses.
 
Senior Damion Thornton led the Buffs' offense with 23 points, shooting 9-of-11 from the floor including 5-of-7 at the free throw line to go along with five rebounds and three steals.  Larry Wise also reached 20 points on Sunday while grabbing a team-high six rebounds. 
 
Florida Southern jumped out to a quick 13-point lead, 17-4, to start off the game until the Buffs collected a successful 11-1 run to bring the score within three. Julius Brown recovered the ball off Wes Bongiorni's missed shot before newcomer Journee Phillips added two to the board to tie score, 23-23, with 9:08 left to play in the half. 
 
Thornton disrupted the Mocs pass to make away with the fastbreak dunk to level the at 29-all. With 2:10 left on the clock, freshman Ahamed Mohammed grabbed his first second round of the game before posting the fade away shot to even the score, 37-37. Julius Brown's layup cut the Mocs lead to one before Zach Toussaint drove up the lane for two to five WT just its third lead of the half until Tray Alexander went 1-for-2 at the charity stripe to make it 42-all at the half. 
 
Mohammed led off with his only 3-pointer of the game to give WT the lead before the two programs went back-and-forth over five minutes of action until the Mocs' grabbed a 3-point lead with Alex Steen's dunk. At 2:49, the Mocs extended their lead out to seven until Zach Toussaint drained a shot from the deep to cut the lead to three. 
 
With 18-seconds left of regulation, Thornton recorded his 21^st point to make it 91-89 but the Mocs' defense held off the Buffs to earn the upset victory.  
 
WT shot 47.0% from the field (31-of-66), 75.9% from the free throw line (22-of-29) and 27.3% from the deep (6-of-22) while totaling 37 rebounds, six assists, seven steals and two blocks from Addison Wallace. 
 
The Mocs were 31-of-56 from the floor (55.4%) and 20-of-34 from the charity stripe (58.8%) while shooting 10-of-22 from beyond the arc (45.5%) led by Jaden Booth with a game-high 25 points.  FSC totaled 35 rebounds, 10 assists, four steals and two blocks. 
 
WT will take a break from Division II competition when they host an exhibition contest against Wayland Baptist on Monday, Nov. 14 before taking on Oklahoma Panhandle State in the home opener on Monday, Nov. 21.