SHAWNEE, Okla. – Chadron State rallied late but couldn't dig out of a 14-point halftime deficit, eventually falling to a storied and talented West Texas A&M program by a score of 91-83 in the first of CSC's two matches at a crossover at Oklahoma Baptist in Shawnee, Oklahoma on Friday evening.
Chadron State is now 0-2. West Texas A&M, which started its season last weekend, is now 5-0.
Ronyo Obou, a transfer from Saint Martin's, finished as CSC's leading scorer off the bench with 22 points in his second game as an Eagle. Obou shot 8 of 21 from the field, making four three-pointers, and grabbed nine rebounds.
Patric Prince shot an efficient 9-for-12 from the field on his way to 21 points and 13 rebounds for a double-double.
Patrick Punch chipped in 14 points to be Chadron State's third double-digit scorer and added three steals, while
Vincent Tedeschi scored nine points on 4-for-8 shooting and led the team with five assists and four steals.
West Texas A&M shot 48 percent from the field, one game after CSC's season-opening opponent, Northern State, shot 54 percent. The Eagles shot a respectable 42.7 percent from the field.
Obou accounted for half of Chadron State's eight three-point makes in 28 attempts (28.6 percent). Punch made two threes while
Zyon Little and
Konnor Kralik each hit one. West Texas A&M made 7 of 20 threes (35 percent).
The Buffs shot 40 free throws to Chadron State's 16, but still made them at a higher clip. West Texas A&M hit 32 of 40 foul shots to go 80 percent from the line, while the Eagles made 11 of 16 to finish at 68.8 percent from the stripe.
The two teams were fairly even on the glass, with Chadron State outrebounding WTA&M 41-37. Nearly half of CSC's 41 rebounds (20) were offensive, including six of
Patric Prince's 13.
West Texas A&M committed one more turnover than the Eagles (22-21) but also come up with one more steal (13-12).
Obou scored seven consecutive CSC points in a 7-1 scoring run that gave Chadron State an early 12-8 lead, but the Buffaloes pulled back ahead and used a 13-0 scoring run midway through the first half to open up what eventually became a 43-29 halftime lead.
West Texas got up by as many as 21 with 7:17 left in the game, but Chadron State battled back closer.
Patrick Punch (four points) and
Patric Prince (two) combined on a 6-0 run to cut the lead to 15, then later on,
Caleb Hannah hit a layup, stole the ball on the ensuing possession and made another fastbreak basket to drop the deficit to seven points with 1:43 to play.
The closest margin of the second half came when Obou hit his fourth three-pointer with eight seconds left to make a six-point game, 89-83. West Texas was fouled and hit two free throws to reach the final margin of eight.
Chadron State will play again in Shawnee, Oklahoma, meeting yet another Lone Star Conference school for a neutral-site game when the Eagles face Texas A&M-International. Tip-off on Saturday as set for 4:30 p.m. MT (5:30 p.m. CT/local).
Chadron State—Ronyo Obou 22,
Patric Prince 21,
Patrick Punch 14,
Vincent Tedeschi, 9,
Zyon Little 8,
Konnor Kralik 5,
Caleb Hannah 4.
Totals: 32-75 FG (8-28 3PT) 11-16 FT. 83 points, 41 rebounds, 11 assists, 21 turnovers.
West Texas A&M—KJ Thomas 25, James Parlow Jr 22, Ben Walton 14, Logan Gibson 12, Joel Robinson 5, Zach Brown 5, Ryder Cheesman 4, Jailyn Sledge 3, Sean Jimmy-Ducksworth 1.
Totals: 26-54 FG (7-20 3PT) 32-40 FT. 91 points, 37 rebounds, 14 assists, 22 turnovers.
