WICHITA FALLS– The Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team defeated MSU Texas 78-64 on Thursday night. The Lions trailed by one at halftime but took control in the second half to get the win.
 
The win brings the Lions to 11-2 on the season and 3-0 in the Lone Star Conference. The Mustangs fall to 4-9 and 0-3 in conference play.
 
The Lions return to action on Saturday with a road matchup against Cameron. The game will be played at 4 p.m. at Aggie Gym in Lawton, Okla.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Willie Rooks (Houston - North Forest) finished one rebound shy of a double-double. He led the team with 20 points and pulled in nine rebounds. 16 of his points came in the second half.
- Tyree Robinson (Fall River, Mass.) had 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting.
- Deonta Terrell (Chicago, Ill.) had 14 points while Reggie Reid (Harlem, Ga.) had 11 points and led the team with seven assists.
- Trey Conrod (Kilgore) had nine points and four assists and came away with five steals and a pair of blocks on the defensive end.
- The Lions shot 48 percent from the field in the game, including 54 percent in the second half. The Lion defense held MSU to just 37 percent shooting.
- The Lions only trailed for 49 seconds in the game.
 
HEAD COACH JARET VON ROSENBERG AFTER THE GAME
- On interior play: "It's so big when we do get it in there and penetrate the defense that we take advantage and make (those shots). Tyree is really good at that. We missed some layups in the second half and the lead hovered around seven for a while. The guys stuck with it and we kept getting stops on the defensive end."
- On halftime adjustments: "The two things we talked about at length were taking care of the glass – holding them to one shot – and taking care of the basketball. In the first half, we did one of the two – we took care of the glass – but we had 11 turnovers. When you look at the final box score, we had 14 for the game, so that's where we won the game. Taking care of the ball and getting shots. We did it for 20 minutes, we didn't do it for 40, but we'll take it."
- On Cameron matchup: "It's not going to get any easier. We've got to be ready to go when it tips at 4 o'clock Saturday. We're playing another hungry, well-coached team that plays a different style, and we've got to be ready to adjust and be ready to go."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Lions scored the first four points of the game. Robinson had an early dunk and also converted a three-point play as the Lions took an early 7-2 lead. Five minutes into the game, the Lions had built a six-point lead.
 
MSU fought back within one point before the Lions again built their lead back to five. The teams traded buckets before MSU tied the score at 19 midway through the half. The Lions built a slight lead again before the Mustangs again battled back to tie the game with two minutes to go. A late MSU bucket sent the Mustangs into halftime with their first lead of the game, 31-30.
 
Terrell led the team with 12 points in the first half. Robinson added seven points and Reid had five. A&M-Commerce shot 40 percent in the first half.
 
The teams traded buckets to start the second half before the Lions took the lead for good on a three-pointer from Conrod. The Lions then went on a 7-0 run, including two buckets from Robinson and a three from Rooks to build their lead to nine points with 15 minutes left.
 
The teams traded baskets for the next three minutes before the Lions pushed their lead to double digits. Rooks made consecutive jumpers as the Lions built their lead even further. Rooks converted a three-point play and then had a dunk to put the Lions ahead by 20 points with seven minutes left in the contest.
 
The Lions pushed their lead to as many as 21 in the game.