STEPHENVILLE – The Texas A&M-Commerce men's basketball team won the turnover battle and picked up a crucial road victory, beating Tarleton State University 65-58 in Wisdom Gym on Thursday night.
 
The win give the Lions their first regular season sweep of the Texans since the 2000-01 season. A&M-Commerce is now 19-5 overall and 11-3 in the Lone Star Conference, while Tarleton is now 18-7 overall and 8-6 in the league.
 
The Lions are away from action for a week and return to the floor on Thursday, February 21, hosting Eastern New Mexico at 7:30 p.m. in the Field House.
 
COACH JARET von ROSENBERG AFTER THE GAME
On picking up a road win at Tarleton: "It's such a tough building to come into and win. That's a credit to their program – it's tough to win in here and our guys know that. They knew it was going to be tough to get a win and we were going to need to play tough for the whole 40 minutes. We had different guys step up and contribute all night."
 
On the Lions' defensive effort: "Hats off to our guys, we switched some stuff that we've never done all year and didn't practice with it much. We just talked about it and watched some film, and they really stepped up and did an unbelievable job. We talked about being connected on the floor and that's always something you want to continue to get better at. I thought our guys were really connected tonight. Even when things didn't go our way, they kept playing and stayed together for 40 minutes."
 
On winning a low-scoring game: "Hats off to our guys for continuing to battle. We're averaging 83 points per game and it's exciting for me to see that we're able play a different style of game and still get a win."
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Willie Rooks (Houston – North Forest) led all scorers with 19 points, connecting on four three-pointers. He also had two rebounds and two assists without committing a turnover.
- Trey Conrod (Kilgore) scored 14 points with four rebounds, and two steals.
- Wayne Stewart (Philadelphia, Pa.) scored 12 points.
- The Lions shot 39.3 percent (22-of-56) from the floor and made 10-of-30 (33.3 percent) of their three-pointers.
- Tarleton held a 32-28 rebounding advantage and shot 46.5 percent from the floor, but the Lions scored 22 points off of 18 Tarleton turnovers and also scored 12 second chance points on 12 offensive rebounds.
- Srdan Budimir (Karadjordjevo, Serbia) scored eight points with three assists and five steals.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Lions jumped on their hosts early, roaring out to a 10-2 lead in the first 2:14 of the game. Conrod made his first three shots of the night – including a three-pointer – and Budimir also drained a triple. Tarleton responded with a 12-2 run to give the hosts their first lead of the night with 13 minutes left in the first half.
 
The Texans led by as many as six points in the first half at the 6:43 mark before an A&M-Commerce rally. The Lions outscored the home side by a 14-4 count in the final stages of the first half, keeping Tarleton scoreless from the field in the final five minutes of the half. Rodney Brown (Beaumont – West Brook) scored a three-point play in the final seconds to give the Lions a 33-29 lead at the break.
 
Tarleton tied the game up at 36-all with just over 16 minutes remaining in regulation, and the teams stayed closely locked up for the next few minutes. Tarleton led by two with 13 minutes to play before a Stewart trey flipped the lead back in the Lions' favor.
 
From a 49-all tie with 10 minutes to play, Rooks and Conrod made consecutive three-pointers to put the Lions up for good. Tarleton could get no closer than four points in the remainder of the contest. The Texans made only one field goal in the final five minutes, and the Lions nailed clutch free throws down the stretch to seal the Lions' third victory in Stephenville in the last decade.