Buffs get past ENMU in LSC men's finale

Staff report

PORTALES — David Chavlovich scored 22 to lead four West Texas A&M players in double figures, and the Buffaloes closed out the Lone Star Conference regular season with an 82-63 victory over Eastern New Mexico University on Saturday night at Greyhound Arena.

Jerrod Walton and Eric Golightly Jr. added 16 points apiece for the Buffs (21-9, 9-5 LSC), whose win put them into a three-way tie for second place behind Midwestern State, which defeated Cameron 79-59 to retain its one-game lead for the No. 1 seed going into the weekend’s LSC championship in Allen, Texas.

West Texas A&M fell to fourth place due to a 0-2 season record against Midwestern State, and will face No. 5 Cameron to open the tourney.

The Greyhounds, led by Lawrence Domingo’s 19 points and 15 rebounds, were locked into the eighth seed entering the contest, but now know they will face the Mustangs in a 7:30 p.m. (MST) tipoff on Wednesday.

Domingo got ENMU (6-20, 2-12) going early, with a 3-point play to open the scoring, and the Greyhounds led 12-4 early before the Buffs made a comeback.

Jeff Bonner, who scored 11 for WT, had layups on back-to-back possessions midway through the first half to give the Buffs their first lead at 18-16, then WT went on a 9-2 run after the Greyhounds shortly regained the lead on Ladarius Stewart’s layup.

Chavlovich scored five points during an 11-2 run to open the second half, and the lead never dipped into single digits after that.

Nobody else reached double figures for the Greyhounds, but ENMU did get nine points from Javaan Mumtaz and eight each from freshman guard Brady Patterson and Arcaim Lallemand.

In the other quarterfinals, Angelo State takes on seventh-seeded Texas A&M-Kingsville on Wednesday and Tarleton State plays sixth-seeded Texas A&M-Commerce on Thursday. Those teams also played each other Saturday, with Angelo State and Tarleton posting wins.