COMMERCE – The Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team led wire to wire in an 83-61 rout of Dallas Baptist in the Field House on Thursday night.
 
With the victory, the Lions head into the holiday break with a 9-2 record, while DBU is now 7-3.
 
The Lions are away from the court competitively until Sunday, December 30, when they host Texas A&M International at 4 p.m.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- The Lions shot 56.9 percent (33-of-58) from the field, including a blistering 54.2 percent (13-of-24) from the land of three.
- A&M-Commerce blocked a season-high nine shots and had assists on 22 of 33 made baskets. The Lions also had a massive 38-25 rebounding advantage.
- Reggie Reid (Harlem, Ga.) had a fantastic all-around game, scoring 19 points, grabbing eight rebounds, and passing out eight assists.
- Trey Conrod (Kilgore) had 16 points and six rebounds, making all three of the three-point field goals he attempted.
- Willie Rooks (Houston – North Forest) also netted 16 points and grabbed five assists.
- Tyree Robinson (Fall River, Mass.) scored 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting, blocking two shots, getting four rebounds.
- Rodney Brown (Beaumont – West Brook) blocked four shots and had three assists to go with six points off the bench.
 
COACH VON ROSENBERG AFTER THE GAME
On the win: "That was fun. When you play at home and you make some shots, we are tough to beat. Everybody who played in the game played well. That doesn't always mean making every shot. Twenty-two assists is a heck of a night of sharing the basketball. That was fun."
 
On the defense: "We are getting better. It was good to see us rebound the ball well. That is a tribute to us getting stops. We tip our hats to DBU. They made some shots and made it tough on us early. Then we went on a run and they were never quite able to get their footing in the second half."
 
Going into the break: "We have a lot of basketball left. It seems like we have played a lot of games but the season started November 10th. We are almost a month in. There is a lot of basketball left. I'm really happy to see us close out this home stand before we go on break. Now we'll have some practice time, try to clean some stuff up and make sure we are ready for the spring semester."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Reid scored on a floater in the paint on the first possession of the game, and the Lions made their first four shots of the game to quickly run out to a 10-3 lead. Two of the buckets were Conrod triples. The Patriots used three-pointers from Conner Lidiak to keep the game tight, as the Lions led 22-21 at the 10:33 mark.
 
The Lion lead was still only at one point with just under four minutes to play, then used the long ball and a monster slam to pull away. Rooks made a pair of threes, Srdan Budimir (Karadjordjevo, Serbia) netted a triple, and Brown rattled the rim with a two-hand jam. Reid drained a three-pointer just before time expired, as A&M-Commerce closed the half on a 14-2 run to take a 45-32 lead into the locker room at halftime.
 
In the early stages of the second half, the Lions pushed the lead to 20 points for the first time in the game with a 12-5 run in the first five minutes. Conrod opened the scoring with a jumper in the paint, Robinson hammered home a dunk followed by a second-chance basket, then Reid drained a pair of threes to give the Lions a 57-37 lead with 15:11 left in the game.
 
DBU managed to narrow the deficit to 13 points in the next four minutes, but the Lions then went on a 14-6 surge over six minutes. A Rooks three followed by a Conrod triple on the fastbreak put the Lions up 75-54 with five minutes on the clock, effectively sealing the game.