COMMERCE – The Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team started the season off on the right foot with a 97-85 win over Oklahoma Christian in the LSC/Heartland Challenge at the Field House on Friday evening.
 
The Lions jump out to a 1-0 record for the season and will play Newman at noon Saturday to wrap up the weekend.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE.
- Five Lions scored in double figures, led by a pair of strong performances off of the bench.
- Malik Albert made a strong impression in his first game as a Lion, soring 26 points with six rebounds, six assists, two blocks and two steals in his debut.
- Dorian Armstrong recorded a double-double in his first Lion action, scoring 10 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.
- Trey Seymore also filled up the box score with 21 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals without turning the ball over.
- De'Andre Carson with 15 points and Montrell Little with 13 points and six rebounds rounded out the double digit scorers
- The Lions shot 45.1 percent from the field (37-of-82) with a 36.0 percent  (9-of-25) success rate from three-point range.
- A&M-Commerce won the battle of the boards by a 45-42 margin, thanks in large part to 20 offensive rebounds.
- The Lions turned the ball over only six times.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Lions started off slowly as the Eagles led 11-5 at the first media timeout on a dunk by John Moon. A&M-Commerce flipped that score quickly with a 13-1 run over a three-minute span, putting the lead at 18-12 on a Seymore three-pointer at the 13:19 mark.
 
After seeing the lead shrink to three points, A&M-Commerce hit a double-digit lead for the first time in the contest with 10:45 left in the opening half. A 7-0 run capped by an Armstrong layup made it 25-15 for the hosts. A later 9-point run by the Lions saw the advantage expand to 15 points at 39-24 with 6:07 left in the period.
 
The Lions put the lead as high as 16 points as the half ticked down on a pair of Albert free throws with 3:30 to go, but OC would shrink the lead to nine points in the final minute. A Seymore tip-in before time expired gave the Lions the 53-42 halftime lead. A&M-Commerce shot 47.5 percent (19-of-40) in the opening half.
 
Oklahoma Christian scored the first four points  of the half but that was immediately answered by layups from Marquieth Russell and Carson. After pushing the lead to 14, the Lions saw that evaporate quickly. Over a four-minute span, the Eagles went on a 14-2 run, and a Jordan Box triple for OC made it a 71-69 Lion lead.
 
The Lions never conceded the tying basket, as Albert's layup at the 8:23 mark stemmed the Eagle surge. Albert's three-pointer at the 6:02 mark put the Lions up 81-72 and an eight-point run heading into the final two minutes of the game allowed A&M-Commerce to pull away for the win.