CANYON, Texas (January 18, 2020) – The Lubbock Christian men's basketball team suffered a loss to No. 4 West Texas A&M 92-68 on Saturday in the First United Bank Center.
 
West Texas A&M jumped out to a 9-0 lead to start the game en route to a 52-28 first half and never really looked back. The Buffs scored just under their season average of 95.8 points per game and had eight different players score during the game. Qua Grant led all scorers with 28 points on 10-12 shooting, as WT shot 52.4 percent as a team, which is the highest field goal percentage by any Chap opponent this season.
 
 Parker Hicks and Aamer Muhammad tied for the LCU team lead in scoring with 13 points each, while Lloyd Daniels and Ty Caswell added in 10 apiece. Muhammad's 13 points were a career high and marked just his second time in double-figures this season. LCU shot just 40 percent as a team though, including 25 percent (6-24) from behind the arc. The one bright spot for the Chaps came at the charity stripe, where they were a perfect 10-10, increasing their conference-leading team free throw percentage to 77.4 percent.
 
Lubbock Christian's first made field goal came at the 15:42 mark, as Hicks hit a three-pointer after the Chaps missed their first six shot attempts and turned the ball over twice. LCU got the deficit down to just four a minute later, but the whatever momentum they gained was quickly stamped out by back-to-back WT buckets by Grant and a three-pointer from Jon'il Fugget that had the Buffs up by double digits at the second media timeout.
 
West Texas A&M was able to build their first-half lead so quickly thanks in large part to their 50 percent shooting (7-14) from behind the arc in the game's first 20 minutes. The Buff three-point shooting dropped off significantly in the second half, when they made just four of their 17 attempts (25.3 percent), but the first half damage proved hard for the Chaps to overcome.
 
LCU did start the second half well, cutting the deficit down to 17 points just three minutes in thanks to a pair of three-pointers from Hicks and one from Caswell. The Chaps would hit only one more shot from behind the arc the rest of the half though, shooting 26.7 percent on threes and making their bid for a comeback tough.
 
The widest the gap ever got first came at the 9:21 mark, when Cameron Copley turned the ball over and the ensuing Joel Murray layup put the Buffs up by 29. LCU's deficit was 29 points three other times throughout the rest of the half before both teams emptied their benches in the game's closing minutes. Joshua Davey made the most of his playing time in the loss, setting a new career-high with six points in seven minutes.
 
TURNING POINT
West Texas A&M led wire-to-wire on Saturday, scoring the game's first nine points and never letting the deficit drop lower than four points.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
With wins in both the women's and men's basketball games on Saturday, the Buffs now have a 6.5 to 4.0 lead in the Rivalry on the Range, which the two schools are competing in for the first time this school year.  
 
NEXT UP
Lubbock Christian gets a chance to return home and right the ship now, hosting St. Mary's and St. Edward's on Thursday and Saturday, respectively.