COMMERCE – The Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team picked up its 20^th victory of the season with an 87-78 win over visiting Eastern New Mexico University in the Field House on Thursday night.
 
The Lions are 20-5 overall and 12-3 in the Lone Star Conference with the victory, while the Greyhounds fall to 12-12 overall and 9-7 in league play.
 
A&M-Commerce plays its final home game of the season on Saturday at 4 p.m., hosting No. 4 West Texas A&M for Senior Day and SAAC Make-A-Swish Day. The basketball seniors will be honored prior to the men's game, and a special Make-A-Wish Foundation presentation will be made at halftime of the men's game. Tickets for the doubleheader are available at WeAreLionsTix.com, by calling (903) 468-8756 or by visiting the Lion Sales & Service Box Office in the Field House.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- The Lions have won 20 games or more in both of head coach Jaret von Rosenberg's seasons at the helm.
- Five Lions scored in double figures, led by 19 points from Willie Rooks (Houston – North Forest), who also led the team with seven rebounds.
- Trey Conrod (Kilgore) had 18 points, five rebounds, and four assists. He went 4-of-6 from three-point range.
- Srdan Budimir (Karadjorjevo, Serbia) scored 13 points and grabbed six rebounds.
- Rodney Brown (Beaumont – West Brook) and Wayne Stewart (Philadelphia, Pa.) each netted 10 points.
- Carson Tuttle (Mukilteo, Wash.) was just short of his first-career double-double, scoring eight points and passing out 10 assists.
- The Lions shot 50.8 percent from the field in the game, making 31-of-61 shots. A&M-Commerce connected on 44.8 percent (13-of-29) of its three-pointers, and went 6-of-12 from long range in the second half.
- The Greyhounds struggled from deep in the second half, making only 1-of-11 (9.1 percent) of their three-pointers.

HEAD COACH JARET VON ROSENBERG AFTER THE GAME
- On the team's second half performance: "That's a really good Eastern team. They never went away and kept competing. We caught fire to start the second half. I credit our guys for making plays for each other. We got a couple stops. When you get stops and shoot the cover off the ball for five minutes, we were able to establish a lead that they weren't able to come back from."
- On the team's rebounding effort: "We got rebounds from our guards. We did a good job of collectively rebounding. That's what we always talk about. To beat them on both sides of the glass is a real credit to buying into the game plan. If that is lopsided, this game would have been a lot different."
- On the team's defensive effort: "Our defense leads to our offense. When we are taking the ball out of the net and teams can get set, it becomes a lot harder to be efficient offensively. When we are able to flow into offense after stops and long rebounds, we become that much harder to guard with the multiple skill guys we have on the floor."
- On getting to the 20-win mark for the year: It's a big deal for these guys to have consecutive 20-win seasons. We are just looking to build on that."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Long-range shooting boosted the Lions early, as Rooks and Conrod drained three-pointers on the first two possessions of the game for the home team. The teams proceeded to battle back and forth, but a personal four-point run by Deonta Terrell (Chicago, Ill.) put the Lions up seven points at 18-11 with 13:18 left in the first half.
 
Eastern responded with eight straight points over the next minute and a half, taking a 19-18 lead with 12 minutes left in the opening frame. The Greyhounds would not be able to push their lead to any more than three points in the game. ENMU led 39-38 with just over a minute and a half left in the opening half, but the Lions closed out the frame on fire. Conrod and Budimir canned three-pointers and a late free throw by Conrod gave the hosts a 45-39 lead at the break.
 
A&M-Commerce carried the hot streak into the second half, making their first six shots in the opening five minutes of the frame. A Rooks layup at the 15-minute mark put the Lions up by 15 points at 60-45.
 
A 14-2 run in the middle of the half capped by a Rooks triple and a Stewart layup allowed the Lions to take their largest lead of the game at 75-51 with 10:30 left on the clock. Eastern attempted to battle its way back into the contest with long range shots and risks on fastbreaks, but the Greyhounds couldn't get the deficit into single digits until the final minute of the game, and the Lions earned the season sweep.