Home, sweet, home Buffs move to 12-0 at home fending off Cameron

Quickie three highlights

— WT junior guard Jordan Evans ties his career high with 30 points.

— WT played at home for the first time since Jan. 14 and improves to 12-0 at the First United Bank Center.

— Cameron erased WT’s 15-point lead in the second half, briefly taking a lead with just more than five minutes to play.

By Lance Lahnert

lance.lahnert@amarillo.com

Home, sweet, home is exactly what the West Texas A&M men’s basketball team needed Thursday night.

Stinging from a 1-4 record on a nearly month-long road trip, West Texas held off a furious Cameron rally staying undefeated at the First United Bank Center with an 87-82 Lone Star Conference victory.

Junior guards Jordan Evans and David Chavlovich propelled the Buffs offense combining for 50 points, 30 of those from Evans tying his career high.

“I’m glad we got the W today,” said Evans, who scored 22 of the Buffs opening 44 points, was 8-of-14 from the floor and a perfect 8-of-8 from the line. “We had a lot of distractions this week with Carl White spraining his ankle on Monday and Ryan Quaid has been sick, this was his first day back. When you are dealing with stuff like that you just have to deal with it. I’m glad we got the W.”

The win pushed the Buffs to 20-6 overall — the second consecutive 20-win season under third-year coach Tom Brown — and more importantly into third place at 8-5 in the LSC.

WT also moved to 12-0 at home this year.

“We made some mistakes,” Brown said. “But we weathered the storm and we didn’t give in. This conference is brutal. Cameron has 14 wins and that’s a really good basketball team. They have five guys on their team who can take one dribble at you step back and knock down 15-to-17 footers and not even hitting the rim.

“It was a great win for us to protect home court.”

Cameron dropped to 14-10 overall and 7-7 in the LSC.

This one looked like it was going to be all WT when the Buffs led by 15 with 10:04.n’

But Cameron coach Andrew Brown called on a trapping press and a five-guard offense and the strategy paid off.

Cameron went on a 10-0 run ignited by 3-pointers from Tyus Momoh and Tyler Williams (who scored a team-high 20 points) and led 74-73 with just more than five minutes to play.

“We can’t let leads like that slip away,” Evans said. “That’s been somewhat of an achillies heel for us and we can’t let that happen. We have to clean that up.”

But the Buffs did the job in crunch time quickly taking back the lead at 75-74 with five to play on a pair of Chavlovich free throws.

It was a Chavlovich 3-pointer with 23 seconds to play that pushed the WT lead to 85-80, sealing the win.

“This win really felt good,” said Chavlovich. “Losing really sucks. Going into the locker room after a loss is the worst feeling ever. We had some great practices this week and I really feel like it’s coming together.”

Chavlovich honored

Before Thursday’s game started Chavlovich was presented a basketball recognizing him as the all-time leading scorer in WT history. Chavlovich passed Martin Lattibeaudiere’s 1,566 points last weekend on the road at UT Permian Basin.

WT’s entire team took the floor with Chavlovich for a team photo and handed him the honorary ball.

“It’s really a blessing and something you only dream of as a kid,” Chavlovich said. “I’m just happy I could do that at any college whether it’s Division II or Division III or anywhere. Not many people score this many points.

“I didn’t really come here to score a lot of points. It just happened. I came here to win a national championship and I think we can do that this year.”

Lights out

Evans and Chavlovich put on a scoring show combining to make 16-of-17 free throws, eight 3-pointers accouting for 50 of the Buffs 87 points.

So who’s the best shooter?

“Oh, Jordan is the best shooter in the nation,” Chavlovich said. “I’ve been saying that since I got here. Nobody can outshoot Jordan and I’m willing to put him up against anybody.”

Evans was told was Chavlovich said about him.

“Oh, I think David is the best shooter,” Evans said. “That means a lot coming from the all-time leading scorer.”

Big guy, big game

West Texas 6-foot-11 senior Skyler O’Laughlin had a big, big might grabbing 12 rebounds and scoring eight points in 20 minutes of action.

“Those 12 rebounds helped us out so much,” said WT coach Brown.

O’Laughlin has been an emotional player for the Buffs all year and didn’t play last weekend against UTPB.

“This meant a lot for us,” O’Laughlin said. “It was huge game and I think we are starting to figure things out again. We don’t want to lose at home. We don’t want to lose in front of our home fans.

“All I want to do is be out there helping my team win.”

West Texas A&M 87, Cameron 82

Cameron (14-10, 7-7): JV Long 4-9 5-6 14, Delvonte Pierre 5-11 1-2 12, Tyus Momoh 6-10 0-0 16, Stacey Lambert 0-6 0-1 0, Tyler Williams 8-9 2-5 21, Trey Hall 4-13 2-2 11, Trey Hall 4-13 2-2 11, Jordan Lewis 0-2 0-0 0, Jalen Nicholas 0-3 4-4 4, Elish Benjamin 2-3 0-0 4. Totals 29-66 14-19 82.

West Texas A&M (20-6, 8-5): David Chavlovich 5-13 8-9 20, Jordan Evans 8-14 8-8 30, Eric Golightly Jr. 4-8 4-8 14, Eric Mosley 1-2 0-1 2, Sklyer O’Laughlin 3-5 2-2 8, Drew Evans 2-2 2-3 6, Tommy Gove 0-3 2-2 2, Joseph Prince 1-5 2-2 5, Ryan Quaid 01 0-0 0, Garrett Brockman 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-54 28-35 87.

Cameron 34 48 — 82

West Texas 38 49 — 87

3-point goals: Cam: 10-27 (Long 1-4, Pierre 1-5, Momoh 4-4, Williams 3-3, Hall 1-6). WT: 11-23 (Chavlovich 2-6, Golightly Jr. 2-3, Evans 6-9, Prince 1-2). Rebounds: Cam: 36 (Pierre 7, Hall 7). WT: 40 (O’Laughlin 12). Steals: Cam 9: (Long 2, Lambert 2). WT: 6 (Gove 3). Blocked shots: Cam: 2 (Lambert 1, Williams 1). WT: 2 (O’Laughlin 2). Turnovers: Cam: 11 (Long 5). WT: 15 (Chavlovich 6). Total Fouls: Cam: 25. WT: 17. Fouled out: Long. Technicals: None. Officials: Nick Atwood, Mike Yell, Demond Thomas. Attendance: 705.

Lone Star Conference

Men’s standings

Team LSC Overall

Tarleton State 12-2 21-3

UT Permian Basin 10-3 19-4

West Texas A&M 8-5 20-6

Texas A&M-Commerce 8-6 16-7

Texas A&M-Kingsville 7-6 14-8

Cameron 7-7 14-10

Angelo State 6-7 14-7

Midwestern State 6-8 13-10

Eastern New Mexico 4-10 10-14

Western New Mexico 0-14 2-20

Tuesday’s game

Eastern New Mexico 83, Western New Mexico 77

Thursday’s games

West Texas A&M 87, Cameron 82

Tarleton State 78, Texas A&M-Kingsville 41

UT Permian Basin 92, Midwestern State 85

Angelo State 88, Texas A&M-Commerce 74

Saturday’s games

Midwestern State at West Texas A&M, 4 p.m.

Cameron at UT Permian Basin, 4 p.m.

Texas A&M-Kingsville at Texas A&M-Commerce, 4 p.m.

Angelo State at Tarleton State, 4 p.m.