STEPHENVILLE– The Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team got its sixth consecutive win to start the season with a 94-91 win over Colorado State-Pueblo on Saturday night. The Lions led by as many as 16 in the first half and had to make clutch buckets down the stretch to get the win after CSUP made a second half comeback.
 
The win brings the Lions to 6-0, their best start to a season since 2013-14. CSUP falls to 2-3 on the year.
 
The Lions will open up their conference schedule on Thursday as they face Cameron University. The game will begin at 1 p.m. at the Field House. The game will be preceded by A&M-Commerce's women's team, who tips off against Cameron at 11 a.m.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- There were 10 lead changes in the final nine minutes of the game, including five in the final three minutes.
- Malik Albert led the Lions with 28 points, shooting 13-of-19 from the field. He also had three rebounds and three assists. He made a layup with 18 seconds to go to give the Lions the lead for good.
- Trey Seymore had 19 points, including the final two free throws to ice the game for A&M-Commerce. He had seven rebounds and a team-high five assists. He also had a steal on the final CSUP possession to thwart a comeback.
- Trey Washington had 14 points and Marqueith Russell had 12 points and a team-high nine rebounds.
- The Lions had 26 points off of turnovers, causing 18 overall with 11 steals.
- Gavin Ligget led all scorers with 29 points for CSUP. He shot 9-of-14 from behind the arc for the ThunderWolves. Will Newman had 19 points and Mark Williams had 16 points.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Albert scored the first two buckets of the game for the Lions as they jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead. The ThunderWolves answered back with two three-pointers to get back into the game.
 
The Lions started to go on a run at the 15-minute mark. They were led by Albert, Washington and Seymore, pushing their lead to seven points with 10 minutes left. CSUP was held without a field goal for more than five minutes during the run.
 
The Lions took their first double-digit lead with eight minutes to go in the half. Seymore jumped into the passing lane for a steal and he found Washington on the break for an easy layup. Albert had three consecutive buckets for the Lions late in the first half. The Lions increased their lead to 15 with five minutes to go in the frame.
 
CSUP went on a late run in the half to close the gap to single digits with two minutes left. Gavin Ligget had the hot hand, shooting 5-of-7 from the three-point line in the first half.
 
The Lions finished strong down the stretch of the first half, led by the inside presence of Russell, who had a three-point play in the closing seconds to give the Lions their largest lead of the game. A late three from CSUP sent the Lions into halftime with a 49-36 lead.
 
Ligget led all scorers with 15 points in the first half, all from behind the arc. Albert led the Lions with 13 points in the first, shooting 6-of-8 from the field. Russell had 12 points and a team-high eight rebounds on 5-of-6 shooting. Washington had nine points and Seymore had seven points and a team-high three assists.
 
CSUP cut the lead back down to single digits early in the second half, but the Lions responded again. They held the ThunderWolves scoreless for three minutes and brought their lead back up to 15. Seymore had six early points for the Lions in the half, while adding two assists.
 
CSUP again cut the lead back down. Ligget continued his sharp shooting from behind the arc and the lead was cut to two points with nine minutes left. He hit yet another three to give CSUP its first lead in the second half with eight and a half minutes to play. Over a five minute stretch, the Lions were outscored 20-4. With five minutes to play, the game was knotted up at 77-all.
 
The teams traded leads down the stretch of the game. The Lions had a lead of four but that would be as large a lead as either team would have in the final minutes of the game.
 
Dorian Armstrong had a three-point play to give the Lions a one-point lead before it was snatched back by CSUP. They pushed their lead to three with two minutes left in the game. The Lions had two consecutive steals on defense and turned them into scoring opportunities in the final two minutes, taking back the lead with 40 seconds to play with a layup by Albert. CSUP took back the lead on their next possession going up one.

Albert took control of the game down the stretch. He scored another layup with 18 seconds left to give the Lions the lead for good. He then had the defensive rebound that put the Lions in the driver seat.
 
He passed the ball to Seymore, who was fouled. He made both of his free throws. After a timeout, Seymore stole the inbound pass, not giving CSUP the chance to get a shot off for a chance to tie. He avoided a foul and ran out the clock.