STEPHENVILLE– The Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team won its fifth consecutive game on Friday night, knocking off Emmanuel College 85-74 in Stephenville. The Lions trailed by as many as eight in the first half but retook the lead and never trailed in the second half.

The game was part of a two-game tournament hosted by Tarleton State. The Lions improve to 5-0 on the season, picking up their first win away from their home court. EC falls to 3-2 on the season.

The Lions continue their tournament play on Saturday, facing Colorado State-Pueblo. The game will begin at 5 p.m. at the Wisdom Gym in Stephenville.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- The Lions scored the final nine points of the first half and the first six points of the second half. They never trailed in the second half.
- Trey Seymore led the Lions with 20 points. He also had six rebounds. Jovan Austin had 18 points and a team-high five assists to go along with four rebounds. Dorian Armstrong had a double-double with 16 points and a team-high 10 rebounds.
- The Lions caused 15 turnovers and turned them into 19 points. They had nine steals in the game.
- After missing 14 of their first 20 shots, the Lions hit 26 of their final 47. They shot 48 percent from the field in the game and made 57 percent of their shots in the second half.
- A&M-Commerce won the total rebound battle, grabbing 43 boards, with 16 offensive rebounds.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The teams traded buckets for the first four minutes of the game before the Lions went on a run, holding Emmanuel scoreless for the next four and a half minutes and taking a five-point lead. The Lions ended up holding EC without a field goal for five and a half minutes.
 
Both teams were cold to start the first half. The Lions missed 14 of their first 20 shots while EC missed 10 of their first 15. The Lions had six early offensive rebounds.
 
Emmanuel started to catch fire after the 10-minute mark of the game. They outscored the Lions 12-4 to take a two-point lead with eight minutes left in the first half. EC continued its hot shooting, pushing its lead to as many as eight in the first half. After missing ten shots early, Emmanuel made seven of its next eight to take the lead. 
 
The Lions responded in the final three minutes of the half, holding EC scoreless in that timeframe. The Lions scored nine unanswered points. Armstrong had three points and two assists in that run and Seymore had the other six points for the Lions, who took a 40-36 lead into the half.
 
Austin and Seymore both had nine points in the first half to lead the Lions. Armstrong had eight points and a team-high six rebounds and two assists. There were six ties and six lead changes in the first half.
 
A&M-Commerce scored the first six points of the second half, giving the Lions their first double-digit lead. Austin, Seymore and Armstrong combined for the first three buckets of the half, continuing what they had done in the first half.
 
EC cut the lead back down to four with 14 minutes to go in the game. Emerson McClung tried almost single handedly to will EC back. He had nine points in the first eight minutes of the quarter.
 
The Lions answered every run by EC with a run of their own, never seeing their lead cut to fewer than four points. The Lions saw their lead grow back to double-digits late in the game. They led by as many as 13 in the final minute, their highest margin in the game.
 
The Lions held EC without a field goal for the more than six minutes before allowing two shots to fall in the final 30 seconds.