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Jan. 7, 2010

Box Score

 

Tahlequah, Okla. – West Texas A&M’s defense couldn’t come up with a timely stop when they needed one, as they fell at Northeastern State, 69-62, Thursday night at Dobbins Field House in Tahlequah, Okla.

The loss, just WTAMU’s second over the past 10 games, drops their season record to 9-5 overall, while NSU improves to 7-4.

“We couldn’t make a stop late in the game,” said WT head coach Rick Cooper. “We had some ‘almost’ stops, but that doesn’t get the job done. I don’t think we came in here mentally ready to play.”

“We’ve won several games at home, but it takes a different mental approach to win a game on the road, especially against as good a team as what Northeastern State is. We just didn’t act like we knew our responsibilities tonight.'

The Buffs jumped to a 12-4 lead after the first eight minutes of the first half, as the WT defense forced five RiverHawk turnovers while holding the home team to just 2-of-9 from the field over that span.

NSU came back, cutting the WT lead to 16-15 on a Jason Jones three-pointer, but the Buffs answered with Bijan Dotson lay up.

WT pushed their lead to 21-15 on Jacquiese Holcombe’s jumper with 5:12 remaining in the half.

NSU took their first lead of the night, 22-21, on an Ethan Anderson three at the 3:56 mark of the first half and pushed the margin to 24-21 on a Jones jumper with 3:10 remaining. The RiverHawks closed the half with a 14-0 run of the final five minutes, taking a 29-21 lead into the halftime break.

To that point, the RiverHawks had reversed their earlier poor shooting and had managed to shut down WT from the floor, holding the Buffs to just 8-of-30 from the floor, 27 percent.

NSU continued their torrid pace to start the second half, bursting to a 13-poin lead, 47-34, by the 13-minute mark of the half.

The Buffs cut the margin to six points, 48-42, when Chris Tucker nailed a three pointer with just over nine minutes remaining. A pair of Holcombe free throws then whittled the lead to four at 48-44. The Buffs kept charging as a Nick Burns’ three-pointer at 7:47 made the score 50-47 in favor of NSU.

The RiverHawks managed to maintain the lead, leading 65-59 into the final minute of play. Another Tucker bucket pulled WT to within 65-61 with 47 seconds to play. NSU then hit five free throws to stretch the lead to 69-61.

The Buffs hit one final free throw to make the final score 69-62.

“We simply got outplayed tonight,” Cooper said. “NSU screened us, they got open shots, and they drove the lane whenever they needed to. We played well, We just didn’t play well enough to win a ballgame tonight.”

WT shot just 38 percent from the field, while NSU hit 51 percent from the floor.

Holcombe and Burns led the Buffs with 17 points apiece, while Tucker contributed 16 points. Bijan Dotson had a team-high seven rebounds to go with nine points.

The RiverHawks were paced by Jason Jones’ 19 points and Dominic Gaines’ 18 points. Antoine Branch also hit double-digit scoring with 10 points. Jones also had a game-high 10 rebounds.

Next up for the Buffs is a Saturday, Jan. 9 contest at Central Oklahoma. Game time is set for 4 p.m. CST.