COMMERCE – The Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team steadily pulled away on the way to a 76-52 win over Central Baptist College in the Field House on Monday night.

The win brings the Lions to 8-2 overall on the season, with one game before the holiday break. Central Baptist counted the game as an exhibition contest.
 
A&M-Commerce hosts Dallas Baptist at 7 p.m. Thursday for the final game before Christmas. There will be an Ugly Sweater Contest with Under Armour gift cards for the tackiest sweater. Photos will also be available with Santa Claus. Tickets are only $2 with the donation of a new, unwrapped toy.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- The Lions shot 45.3 percent (29-of-64) from the field, with eight three-pointers. CBC was limited to 37.0 percent (20-of-54) shooting, including 32.1 percent (9-of-28) in the second half.
- Tyree Robinson (Fall River, Mass.) led all scorers with 17 points and grabbed five rebounds.
- Deonta Terrell (Chicago, Ill.) scored 16 points off the bench and had two blocks and four rebounds.
- Reggie Reid (Harlem, Ga.) and Vernon Lowndes (Charleston, S.C.) each netted 11 points.
- The Lions had 15 assists on 29 made buckets, led by four assists from Srdan Budimir (Karadjordjevo, Serbia).
 
COACH VON ROSENBERG AFTER THE GAME
On the win: "They played us tough. We were able to get our subs in late in the second half. It was another good performance. We had four guys in double figures. Almost everyone got in the box score. We had 15 assists to eight turnovers. Those are all positive things. It was good to get a win. We will take tomorrow off and gear up for Thursday."
 
On Thursday's matchup: "We have an unbelievably good Dallas Baptist team coming in on Thursday. We need the community and the student base to come out and support us in this last game before the break. We want to have this place rocking and we will try and put on a good show."

HOW IT HAPPENED
The visiting Mustangs shot the ball well early, scoring the game's first five points. The Lions needed five minutes to take their first lead. Robinson threw down a dunk on an assist from Rooks to put the Lions up 12-11 with 15 minutes left in the first half. Rooks followed that with a three-pointer on the Lions' next possession.
 
A&M-Commerce proceeded to hold CBC off of the board for over six minutes, going on a 12-0 run. Lowndes' triple at the 8:08 mark put the Lions up 27-13. The Mustangs responded and chipped away at the lead, cutting the margin to three points with 2:15 to play in the frame at 31-28. The Lions scored the final four points of the half and took a 35-28 lead into the break.
 
After the teams went back and forth in the opening minutes of the second half, the Lions went on a run and the lead never shrank below double digits. Terrell scored five points in a 9-0 run that saw A&M-Commerce push its advantage to 15 points at 49-34.
 
Robinson's layup at the 11:13 mark gave the Lions a 19-point edge at 55-36. The Mustangs managed to keep the lead around there until the Lions closed the game on a 12-2 run in the final five minutes. A stepback three-pointer by Lowndes with just over two minutes to play gave the Lions a 24-point lead, and that would also end up as the final margin.