COMMERCE– The Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team defeated Newman University 88-75 Saturday afternoon to close out their opening weekend undefeated. The Lions kept pace with NU for the first 28 minutes before blowing the game open in the final 12 minutes.
 
The win brings the Lions to 2-0 on the season. NU falls to 0-2 on the season.
 
A&M-Commerce continues their four-game home stand on Saturday, November 19 against Dallas Christian College. The game starts at 7 p.m. at the Field House.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE 
- Malik Albert led all scorers with 23 points on 9-of-18 shooting. He also had seven rebounds in 33 minutes. Jovan Austin had 15 points and three assists. De'Andre Carson had 11 points and Montrell Little and Simon Shafack both had 10 for the Lions.
- Daniel Green led NU with 14 points and added six rebounds. Pierre Hayden had 13 points and led the team with seven assists. Daniel Nwosu had 12 points for the Jets.
- There were 10 ties and 14 lead changes in the game. The Lions had the final lead change with 12 minutes left and led by as many as 20.
- A&M-Commerce caused 20 turnovers and had 30 points off turnovers. They had 42 points in the paint, 15 second chance points and 27 bench points.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED 
Albert came out firing, scoring five of the Lions first 10 points and assisting on another basket.  The Lions jumped out to a 10-4 lead early on.
 
NU responded with a run of their own, with Hayden scoring back-to-back 3-pointers to tie the game at 10.
 
The teams traded leads throughout the first half. There were nine ties and 11 lead changes in the first half. Midway through the half, both teams had trouble scoring, going scoreless for a two-minute stretch.
 
With the game tied at 25 with eight minutes to go in the half, Newman started to go on a run. They scored nine of the next 12 points to take a 34-28 lead.
 
The Lions scored the next seven points, including five by Carson to regain the lead. But the Lions went cold to end the half. Carson made a three but the Lions missed six of their other seven shots in the final four minutes. Newman proceeded to outscore the Lions two-to-one and took a 44-40 lead into the half.
 
Hayden had 11 points in the first half to lead all scorers. Taylor Schieber had seven points and Green had six points and added four rebounds for the Jets. The Jets shot 49 percent from the field in the first half and shot 50 percent from the 3-point line.
 
Albert led the Lions with nine points, also pulling down three rebounds. Carson had eight points and Marqueith Russell led all players with seven rebounds. The Lions shot 37 percent from the field and 29 percent from three.
 
Green continued to make his presence known in the second half. He had three quick layups in the first two minutes to push the Jet lead to seven.
 
The Lions responded to cut the lead back down to two. Trey Seymore had a 3-pointer and an assist to Shafack. Shafack had another layup and converted two free-throws in the first eight minutes of the second half.
 
The Lions regained the lead for good with 12 minutes to go in the second half. The Lions began making their presence known on the boards, drawing fouls both on the offensive and defensive end on rebounds. They converted their free throws and took their first lead of the second half.
 
The Lions continued their defensive pressure, jamming the passing lanes and taking the ball away. They scored two buckets off of turnovers and pushed their lead to 68-61 points midway through the second half.
 
The teams traded four-point runs before the Lions again made a run. A three-point play was followed by a steal and 360 dunk by Albert, pushing the lead to 12.
 
The Lions continued to run, going on a 16-4 run to ultimately push their lead to 20 with four minutes to go. Albert continued to have the hot hand to close out the game. The Lions won 88-75.