AUSTIN – St. Edward's men's basketball was more than up to the challenge of facing a top-five team in the nation in #3 West Texas A&M University in their Lone Star Conference home opener, defeating the Buffs 100-87.
SEU improves to 8-1 on the season and 2-1 in the LSC while WTAMU suffers their first loss of the season to drop to 9-1 overall, 1-1 in conference play.
The Hilltoppers got off to a slow start while the Buffs jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the first three minutes. The visitors led until just under 11 minutes remaining in the first half as
AUGUST HAAS hit one from deep to put SEU on top 19-18.
After four ties and two lead changes the remainder of the first half SEU and WTAMU were deadlocked at 42 a piece at halftime.
It was St. Edward's that took an eight-point advantage at the outset of the second half, leading 53-45 with 16:15 to play. Midway through the frame the Hilltoppers were firing on all cylinders and used a 16-5 run that was capped off with a three from
RYAN GARZA to push SEU's lead to 20, 85-65 with 7:07 remaining.
West Texas was only able to close within 13 points in the waning moments as St. Edward's secured the win from the defensive end.
SEU was outstanding offensively, shooting 61.1% from the floor and was led by
ASHTON SPEARS and
AUGUST HAAS. Spears posted 19 points on 6-11 shooting from the field while Haas was 8-10 from the floor for 18 points and added a team-high eight assists.
Garza added 17 points, shooting 5-7 from three-point range, while
DORIAN LOPEZ added 15 and
JAKE KRAFKA 14.
Qua Grant led the Buffs with 28 points.
St. Edward's remains at home to face Eastern New Mexico University on Saturday at 3 pm.
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