CANYON, Texas – The No. 22 Buffaloes of West Texas A&M defeated Texas A&M-Kingsville, 87-78, on Thursday night in front of their home crowd at the First United Bank Center. WT improves to 24-6 on the season and 10-5 in Lone Star Conference play to sit third in the conference standings while the Javelinas move to 14-9 (5-7 LSC). Tonight's game was sponsored by Amarillo National Bank. 
 
Three Buffs reached double figures led by Waxahachie, Texas native Larry Wise.  The sophomore shot 6-of-15 from the floor including 3-of-6 from the three and 6-of-7 at the free throw line with five rebounds and three assists.  Zach Toussaint score 19 points for WT followed by Julius Brown with 18 while Brown grabbed a game-high seven rebounds. 
 
The Buffs opened scoring in the first 40-seconds of play as Larry Wise pulled up with a jumper off a defensive rebound from Julius Brown.  At the 14:42 mark, Hayden Blankley recorded the fastbreak three to extend the score out to five, 11-6. 
 
The Javelinas grabbed the lead with Sammy Brooks' second-chance 3-pointer but was quickly responded shots at the line from Brown to put WT ahead.  Blankley's three at 9:36 pushed the Buffs lead out to six, 21-15, but was answered with a successful run by TAMUK who evened the score at 34-all.  C.J. Smith's fade away beat the buzzer to give TAMUK a 36-34 lead at the intermission. 
 
Jesse Iweze's layup led off the second half but TAMUK returned with a shot beyond the arc to take the lead until the Buffs collected a 7-0 run to make it 48-41.  With 3:54 on the clock, Brown scored four consecutive points to push the lead out to 12, the largest of the night. 
 
WT finished the night 24-of-55 (43.6%) from the field including 8-of-21 (38.1%) at the three and 31-of-42 (73.8%) from the free throw line with 37 rebounds, 12 turnovers, nine assists, five steals and season-high seven blocks.  
 
TAMUK shot 24-of-55 (44.4%) from the floor, 9-of-22 (40.9%) from beyond the arc, and 21-of-24 (87.5%) from the charity stripe with 29 rebounds, 12 assists, 15 turnovers, three blocks and six steals.  C.J. Smith was the leading scorer for the Javelinas with 15 points with three rebounds, three assists and one steal. 
 
The Buffs return to the First United Bank Center on Saturday, Feb. 26, when they host Texas A&M International in the regular-season finale.   Saturday's game is sponsored by Lyons Realty. 
 
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Tonight's game recap is sponsored by Suddenlink.  Suddenlink Communications is an American telecommunications subsidiary of Altice USA trading in cable television, broadband, IP telephony, home security, and advertising.