WT edges Greyhounds in closing seconds of NCAA first-rounder

CANYON, Texas — You can play a close-to-perfect 39:40, and then play perfect defense for 19 more seconds, and that's enough to win nearly every college basketball game.

But that's why it's called March Madness, and why Lexy Hightower was a runaway winner for Lone Star Conference player of the year.

The junior guard delivered one more time Friday, escaping a tight Eastern New Mexico double team and drawing the foul that gave her the game-winning free throws with 0.7 seconds left as West Texas A&M escaped the first round of the NCAA South Central Regional with a 68-67 victory at First United Bank Center.

Those free throws capped off a 25-point day on 9-of-17 shooting, and moved the top-seeded Lady Buffs (29-3) to a 4 p.m. Saturday regional semifinal against Angelo State in a game the box score would suggest they probably should have lost.

"I thought we had control of the game, but it's never over when they have a kid like Hightower," Greyhound coach Josh Prock said. "She's capable of winning the next five games. They've got a complete team, don't get me wrong, but you have to have that special player. Special teams have those."

The Greyhounds (19-11), seeking their first NCAA tournament win in program history, did pretty much everything they needed to get it. They outscored the Lady Buffs 42-26 in the paint and 15-1 on second-chance points, had four players in double figures and trailed for just 21 seconds.

But twice, Hightower gave WT leads — first on a long 2-pointer with 2:48 to go that was immediately followed by a stepback 3 from Eastern freshman Zamorye Cox, and again drawing the foul on sophomore post Alivia Lewis on her game-winning attempt.

Fans in maroon saw a clutch play, and fans in green saw a bailout.

"That was a tough last sequence, for sure," Prock said. "I thought we had the perfect defense on them, I thought we moved our feet well. It's unfortunate it didn't go our way."

The inbound pass to Cox was high on Eastern's final possession, and she couldn't get off a shot as time expired.

"It was just a battle, the whole game was just a battle," said Hightower. "We were going at them, they were going at us. We knew that's what was going to happen, and we knew it was going to come down to the very end, and it really came down to the very end."

West Texas A&M chipped away at a lead that stretched to 11 early in the third quarter, but the Greyhounds kept answering - whether it was Cox from the outside or senior Shelby Jones from the top of the key. Both had 15 points to lead the Greyhounds.

"Their posts play off the free-throw line, so either the shot or the drive is there pretty much every time," said Jones, a Clovis native who shot 7-of-9 from the field. "Honestly, we're probably some of the better shooting posts in our conference."

Lady Buff players had off days, with nobody else reaching double figures, but found small plays that kept them in the ballgame from Delayah Harris' five steals to Tyesha Taylor drawing fouls on Lewis and Clay throughout.

"I felt we got some big defensive stops late," WT coach Kristen Mattio said. "We had some guards rebounding a little bit more than we normally would, and it became a possession-by-possession game. We're going to remember the 0.7 seconds and the free throws that Lexi hit, but there were some big moments in the three minutes before that where people were stepping up."

Saturday marked another LSC opponent with Angelo State, which had topped fifth-seeded Westminster 76-61 earlier in the day. When asked about the comfort of playing a known quantity versus the concern of being a known quantity, Mattio said that wasn't a concern in a one-and-done.

"At this point, it's hard to be picky," Mattio said. "We just won a game with 0.7 seconds left. We're grateful to see another day. In the NCAA tournament, it doesn't matter who you play. We've talked about this as a team. Tell us the gym, tell us the time and the team, and we'll be there. That's not cocky; we're just humbled to have another opportunity.

"There's a million different ways you could look at it, because this will be the fourth time playing them. What could they do? What could we do? We just have to play better basketball than what we did tonight and give ourselves a chance."

The Greyhounds lose Clay and Jones off the roster, and aim to reload for 2019-20 with an eye on their third tournament appearance in four years.

"I just told the young ladies in the locker room I was as proud of this team as I am of any team I've ever been a part of," said Prock, who moved to 80-87 in six years at ENMU but 55-32 in the last three seasons. "When you think about what we lost last year, the amount of talent we lost, all conference kids who graduated.

"We had five seniors last year, and that team unfortunately unfortunately make the NCAA tournament last year. Dasia Johnson, our starting 2-guard, she blew out her ACL in December. So now we're playing with four or five kids who haven't played together, and for them to turn around and have this outcome, making the NCAA tournament like they did, I couldn't be more proud of a group of ladies."