BOX SCORE: Angelo State 71, West Texas A&M 59

SAN ANGELO – A 10-0 run to end the first half by Angelo State sparked a 71-59 Lone Star Conference win over West Texas A&M on Wednesday at Stephens Arena inside the Junell Center.

The Rams (12-3, 2-1 LSC) improved to 8-0 at home this season with the win, while the Buffs (7-7, 0-3 LSC) were held 11 points below their season average in scoring.  ASU finished the game shooting 48.9 percent from the field, including going 14-for-23 (60.9 percent) in the second half after leading 29-19 after the first 20 minutes of play. The win snapped a seven-game losing streak against WT for the Rams in front of a season-high 1,134 fans.

"We were struggling in the first half offensively, but I didn't think it was necessarily what we were doing wrong but what West Texas was doing right," ASU head coach Chris Beard said. "We knew it was going to be a grind of a game and it was going to be a game where every possession mattered. It was nice to see us get a little separation before the half. If it would have been a game tied at half, I wouldn't have been comfortable going into the second half. It was good to get the 10-point lead and then kind of just hang on."

Kenny Williams led the Rams with 20 points and six rebounds, while also contributing three assists and two blocked shots. It was his eighth game scoring 20 or more points, including three straight 20-plus games to open conference play. Bryan Hammond added 13 points, five rebounds and a team-leading four assists, while Reggie Sutton scored 12 points and Tommy Woolridge contributed 11. Sutton went 7-for-8 from the free-throw line to lead ASU which finished the game shooting 19-for-26 (73.1 percent) on free throws. Ryan Marsh had three blocks against the Buffs and now has seven blocks in the past two games after having four against Texas A&M-Commerce on Sunday.

Williams led the Rams with 10 points in the first half, while Woolridge had eight and Sutton seven. The Rams shot 37 percent from the field and 9 of 11 from the free-throw line. ASU struggled though from beyond the arc by making only 2 of 11 attempts on 3-pointers.

The Rams trailed early in the first half, with the biggest deficit at seven when WT's David Duncan hit a jumper to make the score 14-7 with 10:59 remaining in the opening half. Williams had a quick response with a jumper on the Rams' next possession and two free throws by Sutton cut the lead to 14-11. Another jumper by Hammond made it 16-15 and the Rams took their first lead when Sutton hit two more free throws to give the Rams a 17-16 lead with 5:50 remaining in the first half.

Tied at 19 on a Tez Dumars jumper for WT, the Rams would go on a 10-0 run to end the first half with two jumpers from Sutton, one from Williams and a 3-pointer from Woolridge. The first-half scoring ended with a pair of free throws by Woolridge for the 10-point advantage.

The halftime lead was trimmed to seven with an Antjuan Ball dunk five minutes into the second half, but the Buffs would never get closer. The Rams pushed the lead back to double figures on two more free throws from Sutton (46-35, 10:36) and the lead grew to 13 with a Williams jumper with 7:34 remaining in the game. ASU's biggest lead of the game was 14 when Hammond hit two free throws with 33 seconds remaining.

The Rams outrebounded the Buffs 37-33 in the game, including holding a 25-16 advantage on defensive boards. Daniel Skinner and Marsh added six rebounds for the Rams to tie Williams for the team lead against WT. ASU's bench outscored its counterpart 30-13, led by Sutton and Woolridge's point production. The Buffs were limited to 37.7 percent shooting in the game and went 7 of 14 from the free-throw line. Dumars led WT with 16 points and five rebounds, while Duncan had 13 points and four rebounds.

"They have really good guard play with two or three of their guards being able to play in any conference in America," said Beard of WT. "They have really good shooters and maybe the best athlete in the league on the low post. They have really good players and a good coach. We were just fortunate to get the win tonight."

Angelo State returns to action on Saturday against Eastern New Mexico in Portales, N.M. The Greyhounds are 7-7 on the season after improving to 1-2 in LSC play with an 82-78 win over Texas A&M-Kingsville on Wednesday afternoon.