CANYON, TEXAS – The University of Texas at Tyler suffered their second loss of the 2021-22 season on Saturday afternoon in a 79-67 defeat at the hands of #11 West Texas A&M.
 
Three Patriots in Zaire Mateen, Eysan Wiley and Soloman Thomas reached double-digits in the first road Lone Star Conference contest for UT Tyler on the season. West Texas A&M led nearly the entire contest after UT Tyler opened up the scoring with a layup just over 30 seconds in.

The Buffs would go on to hold the advantage for over 38 minutes after that opening score for the Patriots, and turned a 36-29 halftime margin into a 12-point victory thanks to 43 second-half points. Mateen led the Patriots with 11 points, knocking down 3-of-6 from the field.
 
Wiley and Thomas both had 10 on a night in which UT Tyler went 19-of-46 (41.3 percent) from the floor as a unit.
 
The Patriots were able to stay in the ballgame and keep the second-half deficit in single digits up until the 10:34 mark of the second half thanks in large part to 25 free throw makes as a team. UT Tyler went 25-for-28 from the charity stripe, including 12 in the second half alone.
 
Wiley scored eight of his 10 points on the night from the free-throw line, going 8-of-9 on the night, and joined Thomas and Micah Fuller with five or more free throw makes in the contest. Thomas finished the evening a perfect 6-for-6 while Fuller went 5-for-6.
 
UT Tyler cut the Buff lead down to just seven at the 69-62 mark with 2:33 remaining, but conceded seven straight points over the next minute to see the lead build back up to 13.
 
Wiley led the Patriots with six rebounds as UT Tyler totaled 28 boards, while West Texas A&M on the other side corralled 35 boards to win the rebound battle. Paul Djoko added five rebounds to his seven points to finish second on the team in rebounding.
 
The Patriots entered the game ranked atop the Lone Star Conference in three-point percentage on the season, but managed just four makes from beyond the arc on 13 attempts to finish at 30.8 (4-of-13) percent  as a team.
 
UT Tyler moves to 9-2 on the year and 1-1 in conference play following the loss, and is scheduled to return to the Herrington Patriot Center for a pair of key match-ups next weekend. The Patriots will take on Eastern New Mexico on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m., and then will welcome the top-ranked team in Division II basketball to their home court on Saturday at 4 p.m. in #1 Lubbock Christian.