No. 1 Seed West Texas A&M Advances Past Cameron - Lone Star Conference Skip To Main Content
Vladimir Cherry

Men's Basketball By Nick Eatman

No. 1 Seed West Texas A&M Advances Past Cameron

West Texas A&M took the first step to its quest to win consecutive LSC Tournament Championships with a dominant win over Cameron. Seeded No. 1 in this tournament, and ranked No. 4 in the country, the defending champs were in control from the start and held off the pesky Aggies, 72-59 at Comerica Center.
 
      The Buffs improved to 29-3 and will play the winner of Tarleton State and Eastern New Mexico on Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. in the semifinal round. The No. 8 seeded Aggies end their season at 9-20.
 
      WT used a late push in the first half to take a 45-27 lead at the break. But Cameron didn’t go down with a fight, and eventually cut the Buffs’ lead down to nine at 68-59 with 5:13 to play. But the Aggies never scored another point, missing their final six shots from the field.
 
      Gach Gach led all scorers with 21 points, including four 3-pointers. WT senior Ryan Quaid had 15 points and 12 rebounds in his first game since being named LSC Player of the Year on Wednesday. Eric Mosley came off the bench to score 11. Freshman Joel Murray had four steals and nine assists.
 
      Cameron was led by freshman guard Brock Schreiner, who had 18 points and seven rebounds. Zachary Dumas scored 10, while Jalen Nicholas grabbed 11 rebounds. All-LSC second-team guard Tyus Momoh played in his last game, scoring nine points with six assists.
 
      WT struggled early in the game, mainly because of turnovers, committing 15 in the first half. A late barrage of 3-pointers from Gach, Mosley and Jordan Collins pushed the lead to 18 at the break.
 
      However, after hitting seven 3’s in the first half, the Buffs made just 3 of 12 in the second half.
 
      And thanks to the play of Schreiner, who constantly penetrated the lane, and Nicholas for keeping possessions alive with offensive rebounds, Cameron never let the Buffs pull away until the very end.
 
West Texas A&M Notes:
  • West Texas A&M extended its conference lead with 36 wins in the LSC Championship, improving to 36-19. The Buffaloes are currently tied with MSU for the most tournament titles with seven.
  • West Texas A&M led the LSC in turnover margin at 5.52 but lost the turnover battle, committing 15 to Cameron’s nine.
  • Entering the game, WTAMU led LSC in 3-point made per game at 10.0 and hit the mark once again, making 10 of 28 attempts.
  • After earning three straight LSC Player of the Week honors to finish the regular season, WT freshman Qua Grant cooled off a bit, scoring six points.  
  • The Buffaloes improved to 36-16 all-time against Cameron, including a perfect 3-0 this year.
  • With 15 points, Quaid became the second player in school history to eclipse 1,600 points in a career. And with 12 boards, he is now just 40 rebounds away from becoming the first Buffs player to record 1,000 career rebounds.
  • With four more steals, Joel Murray extended his WTAMU freshman record and became the sixth player overall in school history to reach 60 steals in a season.
  • Murray wasn’t just taking the ball, but passing it as well. The freshman tied his career high in assists with nine.
 
Cameron Notes:
  • The Aggies dropped to 5-20 all-time in LSC Championship games. Cameron is one of two current conference teams (Western New Mexico) that have not won an LSC Championship tournament title.
  • Cameron has not won an LSC Championship game since 2016 when the Aggies (No. 4 seed) took down West Texas A&M in the quarterfinals in Allen, Texas.
  • Cameron led the LSC in steals with 8.57 but only had two Thursday against the Buffs.
  • The Aggies ranked last in the LSC in field goal percentage at 39.8, and barely bested that mark, shooting just 40.4 percent (23-57) from the floor.
  • Schreiner’s 18 points were his second-highest total of the season, only behind a 22-point performance against Angelo State. He did set a personal best with seven rebounds Thursday against the Buffs.
  • Nicholas finished the year with four games with at least 11 rebounds. His boards Thursday tied for second-most this year. He also had 12 rebounds against West Texas A&M and MSU earlier this year.
  • Making 7 of 14 attempts, Cameron tied its best 3-point percentage of the season, equaling two other 50 percent games against DBU and Newman in non-conference play.