Jan. 20, 2007

Box Score

CANYON, Texas - The West Texas A&M men's basketball broke back into the win column on Saturday evening, defeating Lone Star Conference South Division foe Abilene Christian by a score of 78-69 at the First United Bank Center.

With the victory, its 15th straight in the long standing series with ACU, WTAMU improves its overall record to 8-7 and evens its LSC South mark at 1-1. The Wildcats see their record drop to 9-7 on the season, 0-2 in LSC South play.

The visitors from Abilene jumped out to an early advantage in the contest, building an early nine point advantage, 14-5, at the 15:30 mark, but the Buffs would not stay down for long, responding with an 8-0 run. The spark ignited the Buff offense, which outscored the Wildcats 37-21 the rest of the way in the half to take a 42-35 advantage into the intermission.

Leading the way for WTAMU during the game's opening 20 minutes was junior Chris Hinz, who connected on 3-of-5 fields goals during the half to go along with a 4-of-5 mark from the charity stripe tallying 10 points. Seniors Damien Lolar and Kevin "Chip" Green also were productive in the stanza with eight points apiece.

During the second half, the Buffs were able to build a lead a maintain a double-digit lead for much of the final period, getting a spark from junior guard Moshn Said, who contributed 11 of his 18 points to help seal the win.

Lolar finished with 18 points in the victory to tie Said for the team lead in the points category and junior Pierre Barlow for the team lead in rebounds with eight apiece. ACU guard Philip Brooks led all scorers in the contest with 29 points.

On Monday night, the Buffs will return to the court at the First United Bank Center in a make-up game against New Mexico Highlands that was originally scheduled for Dec. 30. Tip off for Monday's contest is slated for 7 p.m.