COMMERCE– The Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team finishes their four-game home stand Tuesday night with a game against Southern Arkansas University. The game begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Field House. The Lions will then play in a two-game tournament Friday and Saturday in Stephenville, Texas, playing against Emmanuel College and Colorado State-Pueblo.
WHO: A&M-Commerce (3-1) vs. Southern Arkansas (3-1)
WHEN: Tuesday, November 22 at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: The Field House in Commerce, Texas
LIVE STATS: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=147039
LIVE VIDEO: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/tamucommerce/
The Lions are coming off of a 129-65 win over Dallas Christian College. With the game well in hand, it offered head coach
Sam Walker the opportunity to get his bench players into the game, something he felt was well deserved.
"It's good to have games like that where you get a chance to know at the beginning that you are going to be able to get everybody into the game," Walker said. "Especially people who have been working so hard for you and who have been such a big part of your program and your team's development that don't get to play that much. I hope we have some more games like that where we get a chance to get those guys in. It takes all of us."
Walker was pleased with the spark his bench players brought to the game. It wasn't until the reserves came in that the game turned into a blowout. Walker liked the intensity his reserves played with.
"Our bench players were really hungry," he said. "Their hunger showed with a lot of energy and a lot of cohesiveness. They played really well."
The team is leading the Lone Star Conference in offensive rebounding after the first two weeks of the season and is second overall in rebounding. While Walker said it is too early in the season to put much weight on statistics, he wants one statistic to improve.
"We aren't leading in defensive rebounding. That is the statistic that we look at," he said. "Once we get better defensively and become a better defensive rebounding team, then we give ourselves a chance to play in transition. That is where we are really good. We are enjoying the success we are having right now but the competition level is about to get a lot higher."
SAU is riding its own three-game winning streak. They are undefeated in their conference play, picking up two wins last week. They beat East Central University 64-60 on Thursday, the team picked to win the Great American Conference. They then defeated Southeastern Oklahoma State 67-49 on Saturday.
"They have played a tough schedule so far," Walker said of SAU. "It's one of the best Southern Arkansas teams that we have seen. That's good for us. We need to play somebody that is closer to our equal and kind of see where we are. We will know a whole lot more Tuesday night about what type of team we have."
The game against Southern Arkansas is one of three games for the Lions this week. They also play on Friday and Saturday in a Thanksgiving tournament hosted by Tarleton State. Walker is excited to get a lot of work done in a short amount of time.
"You want to play three games in five days this time of year," he said. "You want to play as many games as you can. At this time of year, it's about us and what we do. You are trying to get your stuff in. The scouting reports aren't as important if you can't remember your own plays. We have to get better at what we do before we start worrying too much about other opponents."
