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March 10, 2007

Box Score

WARRENSBURG, Mo. - As it has every game this season, the West Texas A&M men's basketball team put up a gritty and solid team effort but it was not enough to prolong the Buffs' postseason run as their season came to an end on Saturday afternoon with a 86-81 loss to Midwestern State in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA-II South Central Regional.

Among the achievements that this season's squad can claim as its own is a co-Lone Star Conference South Division title and a seventh NCAA-II regional appearance under head coach Rick Cooper. In addition to the team accolades, the Buffs can claim a slew of individual honors, most notably senior forward Damien Lolar, LSC South and Daktronics South Central Region Player of the Year, junior forward Tyler Cooper, LSC Academic Player of the Year, and Rick Cooper, LSC South Coach of the Year.

Early in Saturday's contest it was a long jumper by Lolar that put the punctuation mark on an 8-0 run by the Buffs giving them an initial 10-4 advantage which they took into the first media time out at 15:48.

The Mustangs would survive the opening surge by the sixth-seeded Buffs and the game would remain tight with MSU eventually knotting the game at 16-16 with 9:57 to play in the opening stanza. The slight run would be only a preview of things to come during the remainder of the period as the Buffs' shooting ran cold, and the proceeded to make only three field goals during the next seven minutes and allow MSU to build its biggest lead of the game at 13 points, 36-23. WTAMU rebounded from the drought and regained its shooting touch in the period's final minutes to cut the lead to only 38-30 at intermission.

For the period, the Buffs shot only 36 percent from the floor, connecting on 10-of-28 shots as a team, while Midwestern finished the half with a 47 team shooting percentage. Lolar and teammate Chris Hinz, led the game, along with MSU's Drew Coffman with 10 points at the break. The Mustangs held a 22-14 advantage in the rebounding column.

Out of the locker room, the Buffs continued the momentum they produced in the opening period's closing moments as WTAMU began the half with a 7-0 run to cut the MSU lead to only one point at 38-37.

The workmen like effort of the Buffs continued as they fought the Mustangs tooth and nail until the 10:55 mark when they knotted the game at 55-55 on a three-pointer by senior Kevin "Chip" Green. The surge continued as the Buffs retook the lead, 57-56, just a few possessions later with 9:41 remaining on a jumper by Lolar.

Down the stretch the game would remain tight, but MSU converted 15-of-15 late free throws to overcome a late rush by the Buffs and senior Kevin "Chip" Green who sank two final minute three pointers.

For the game, Lolar led WTAMU with 21 points followed by Green, 17, and Hinz, who finished with 17 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the floor. During the second half, the Buffs improved their shooting percentage drastically to 47.2 percent, but were guilty of a handful of lapses on the defensive end as MSU earn the victory by shooting just under 60 percent during the final period.

MSU's Eric Dawson was statistically the game's most impressive player as the senior collected 33 points and 10 rebounds to lead the game in both categories.

Senior Jordanas Mejeras, who made his first career start against the Mustangs, was one of four WTAMU seniors (Green, Lolar and Goran Stanic) who suited up in the Maroon & White for the final time. Coach Cooper and his staff will immediately go to work preparing for next season and should be in good shape to return for third straight trip to the regional tournament, as the team will return six letterwinners. The team will also receive a boost from the return of Kyle Shields, Mike Baskerville and Tyler Cooper, all WTAMU regulars that missed large portions of the season due to injury.