COMMERCE– The No. 25 Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team will host two Lone Star Conference matchups this week. The Lions host Western New Mexico on Thursday and UT Permian Basin on Saturday.
 
Western New Mexico – Youth Sports Night
WHO: No. 25 Texas A&M-Commerce (14-3, 6-1 LSC) vs. Western New Mexico (3-11, 0-7 LSC)
WHERE: The Field House in Commerce, Texas
WHEN: Thursday, Jan. 24 at 7:30 p.m.
LIVE STATS: Click HERE
LIVE VIDEO: lionathletics.com/live
LIVE AUDIO: ketr.org
TICKETS: Click HERE
 
UT Permian Basin – Alumni Day
WHO: No. 25 Texas A&M-Commerce vs. UT Permian Basin (10-7, 3-4 LSC)
WHERE: The Field House in Commerce, Texas
WHEN: Saturday, Jan. 26 at 4 p.m.
LIVE STATS: Click HERE
LIVE VIDEO: lionathletics.com/live
LIVE AUDIO: ketr.org
TICKETS: Click HERE
 
The Lions are coming off of a split last week. After falling to West Texas A&M on Thursday, the Lions bounced back with a win against Eastern New Mexico on Saturday. Head coach Jaret von Rosenberg was pleased his team was able to split the difficult road trip.
 
"We knew it was going to be tough going into that trip," he said. "Those are two really good programs, run by guys that do a really good job. We played well for about 30 minutes down in Canyon but then the wheels fell off a little bit. They made a push that we couldn't handle and they finished the game really strong. Then we went to Eastern New Mexico and obviously we had a crazy situation happen out there. But like I told our guys, we handled the situation and you still have to play the game and win. We were able to find a way to do that. It was good to get out of there 1-1 and get back home."
 
Against Eastern New Mexico, Lion senior Reggie Reid recorded his first career triple-double. Although it was a difficult game in which to judge statistics, von Rosenberg liked what he saw out of his senior guard and was not surprised.
 
"He has done so many good things for us," von Rosenberg said of Reid. "What people don't see is what he brings to practice every day and the intensity with which he prepares. He has been an everyday guy, as have been a lot of our seniors. We are a senior-laden team. They know what it takes in this league and they know they have to have a performance every night or we are not going to win."
 
The Lions now return home to host two home games to complete the first half of their conference schedule. von Rosenberg is looking for his team to continue to compete and get better as the team comes to the midway mark of their conference season.
 
"We want guys to compete at a high level," he said. "I think we have taken a slide a little bit guarding the last couple of weeks. We need to get back to the intensity on the defensive end, which leads to our offense. But we just want to play well. We want to put our jersey on Thursday and be ready to compete for 40 minutes. We are still searching to play our best basketball, and that is a good sign that we continue to grow and get better every time we step on the floor. We have another opportunity Thursday night."
 
von Rosenberg is also looking forward to Alumni Day on Saturday. He had some words for A&M-Commerce alums.
 
"We want connectivity," he said. "We want people to come back and understand this is their program. They laid the foundation. Obvious Coach Walker was here for 17 years and Coach Peak before that. But there has been a lot of continuity between staffs over the years. I hope they all we want them back. It doesn't have to be Alumni Day. We want to connect with you and we want you to continue to be a part of this program we are building here, building on past success. We have had a lot of success here and myself and my staff are trying to move that forward and continue to build on that. We all bleed the same Blue and Gold. We just need everyone's support. Hopefully we will see you at the Field House."