LUBBOCK, Texas (February 25, 2021) – Playing in front of a large and loud crowd at the Rip Griffin Center Thursday night, West Texas A&M escaped with an 82-78 win over Lubbock Christian University.
 
The loss was the first for LCU this season, dropping them to 16-1 on the year and 14-1 in Lone Star Conference play. WT moved to 12-1 with the win and 10-1 in league action.
 
With eight seconds left, Joel Murray missed a free throw and Parker Hicks rebounded, giving the Chaps, who were down by two, a chance to tie or take the lead. Cameron Copley drove the ball down the court and cut straight through the right side, looking almost home free for a layup, but the shot was blocked at the last second by Kavon Booker. The Buffs grabbed the rebound, sealing the win.
 
Neither team led by more than five points throughout the contest, the score was tied 12 times and the lead changed hands an incredible 22 times before the final horn sounded. The first of those lead changes came just two minutes into the game. The Buffs got the first bucket on a three-pointer from Qua Grant, but Lloyd Daniels answered with three the hard way and Copley hit a layup to give the Chaps their first lead.
 
Daniels and Copley ended up scoring often during the contest, ranking first and second on the team in scoring, respectively. Daniels was efficient from the floor-hitting seven of the 10 shots he took for 23 points. Copley set a new season-high with 19 points and did most of his work from behind the arc, where he was 4-for-5.
 
Another bucket by Daniels and a layup from Parker Hicks put the Chaps up by four at the 16:15 mark, which would be their largest lead of the game. Murray quickly brought the Buffs back though, hitting a pair of free throws and three-pointer.
 
Murray was the game's leading scorer with 32 points, matching his career-high. He and Grant were quite literally all of WT's offense in the early part of the game, combining for the first 15 points the Buffs scored.
 
With the game knotted at 25-25 after a pair of Daniels free throws, another West Texas A&M finally scored as Hayden Blankley hit a three-pointer.
 
Aamer Muhammad responded with a layup and hit LCU's first and only three-pointer of the half a minute later to keep the Chaps within one before Murray scored another three points. Lubbock Christian's last bucket of the half came on a Jalen Brattain tip-in, and they went into the locker room down just two, despite shooting 37.5 percent from the field, including 1-of-10 on three-pointers.
 
The second half was better offensively for the Chaps with a 48.3 shooting percentage, but the Buffs also improved to 53.3 percent shooting and WT seemed to find an answer every time the Chaps took the lead.
 
LCU first pushed in front at the 17:21 mark on a three-pointer from Copley, but Grant answered with a three of his own. Daniels then hit from behind the arc at the 15:38 mark to put LCU up by two, and Zach Toussaint followed with a three-pointer, continuing the see-saw.
 
Grant pushed the lead back out to four with 11:44 left to play, but Copley hit again from long range to help the Chaps keep pace. Daniels hit a pair of free throws out of the under-eight media timeout, giving LCU a two-point advantage, but it was quickly erased as well.
 
Ty Caswell hit a free throw with 5:20 remaining to increase a Lubbock Christian lead to three points, and Copley's two free throws at the 3:40 mark still had the Chaps up by one, but that would be their last lead of the night.
 
Murray got to the free throw line on the ensuing possession and hit both, and the Buffs would hold onto their lead the rest of the way.
 
TURNING POINT
The only real turning point in this game came in the final second, when the out-stretched fingers of Kavon Booker stopped Cameron Copley's attempt to tie the game and force overtime.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Lubbock Christian had its second-worst shooting night of the season, hitting only 42.6 (14-of-29) from the field. Their three-point percentage was particularly bad in the first half, but they hit 7-of-13 in the second half to raise it to 34.8 percent for the game, although that mark was still significantly lower than the team's season average of 43.5 percent.
 
NEXT UP
There truly is no rest for the weary, as these two teams will meet up once again at 4 p.m. Saturday, this time at the First United Bank Center in Canyon, Texas.