COMMERCE – The Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team got out to a double digit lead and held off a furious rally by No. 9 Tarleton State University, earning an 83-82 victory in the Field House on Thursday night.
 
The Lions have now split the regular season series with the Texans and move to 18-7 overall and 10-6 in the Lone Star Conference. Tarleton is now 22-4 overall and 13-3 in the LSC, missing a chance to seal a share of the league title tonight.
 
The Lions are off for a week, and will finish the regular season with two road games next week. A&M-Commerce travels to West Texas A&M on Thursday, February 23, then closes the regular season at UT Permian Basin on Saturday, February 25.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- The Lions were led by Malik Albert's 19 points, as three A&M-Commerce players scored in double figures.
- Trey Seymore had 13 points with five rebounds, five assists, and two steals.
- The Lion bench outscored the opposition reserves 35-5 in the game, led by 11 points from Daquane Willford.
- Jovan Austin had nine points with five assists and two steals. Dorian Armstrong also had nine points, while Trey Washington netted eight.
- Tarleton had a 39-29 edge on the boards, but the Lions made 10 three-pointers on 23 attempts (43.5 percent), and shot 50.0 percent (27-of-54) from the field in the contest.
- Tarleton's Chantz Chambers led four Texans in double figures with 33 points.
 


HOW IT HAPPENED
The game started off at a fast pace, as the Lions attempted to beat Tarleton down the floor and keep the Texans from getting out to a hot start. The game was tied at 7-all when the Lions went on a 7-0 run. Montrell Little hit a free throw at the 13:26 mark to put A&M-Commerce up 14-7, as the hosts held TSU off the scoreboard for nearly four minutes.
 
Tarleton came back with a surge of its own, with an Armstrong basket briefly interrupting an 11-2 run that saw the Texans go up 18-16 at the 10:56 mark of the first half.
 
Neither side was able to get out to more than a four point lead in the rest of the half. TSU was up 32-28 with just under two minutes in the period before the Lions closed on a high, scoring the final seven points of the half. De'Andre Carson drained a three-pointer with 10 seconds left on the clock to give the hosts a 35-32 lead at the break.
 
The Lions shot 46.7 percent (14-of-30) from the floor in the opening 20 minutes of play.
 
Tarleton tied the game up on the first possession of the second half and would lead by one point at 38-37, then the Lions roared with their biggest rally of the night.
 
Started by a Seymore three-pointer, the Lions outscored the guests 18-7 over the next six minutes, and triples from Washington and Willford put the Lions up by a 55-45 count at the 11:41 mark.
 
The teams traded counter-punches for the next few minutes. As Tarleton would dip the Lion lead under 10 briefly, the blue and gold would answer back. A seven-point surge had the Lions up by as many as 14 points with just over five minutes to play.
 
With 1:11 on the clock, Albert sank a pair of free throws that gave the Lions an 11-point lead at 78-67. A pair of Texan free throws, an offensive rebound, and a corner three quickly narrowed the margin to six. The Lions made 5-of-10 free throws in the final minute, leaving the door narrowly open for the Texans. In the final five seconds, TSU drained two contested three-pointers, cutting the lead to one point with 0.7 seconds on the clock, but the Lions successfully inbounded the ball to run off the clock and earn the upset win.
 
A&M-Commerce shot 54.2 percent (13-of-24) in the second half, including 6-of-11 three-pointers (54.5 percent). Tarleton shot 14-of-27 (51.9 percent) in the half, with 5-of-10 three-pointers made.