COMMERCE – The Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team saw a late lead vanish in regulation, but the Lions were still able to pull out an 85-82 overtime win over visiting Midwestern State University on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Lions move to 9-4 overall and 5-2 in the Lone Star Conference with the win, while the Mustangs are now 2-10 overall and 2-4 in league play.
 
A&M-Commerce will travel south for next week's action, playing at Texas A&M International in Laredo on Thursday night, then at Texas A&M-Kingsville on Saturday afternoon.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Both teams shot 28-of-66 from the floor for a 42.4 shooting percentage. MSU made 14-of-32 three-pointers (43.8 percent), while the Lions made 9-of-28 (32.1 percent) long range shots.
- Wayne Stewart (Philadelphia, Pa.) scored over 20 points for the fourth straight game and fifth time in the last six outings. He finished the game with 27 points on 10-of-18 shooting with 12 rebounds, three steals, and two blocks, marking his first double-double of the season.
- Deon Barrett (Lancaster) returned to the lineup and scored 23 points while passing out five assists with only one turnover. He also drew six fouls and committed none.
- Austin Grandstaff (Rockwall) was the third Lion in double digits with 12 points.
- The Lions led by as many as 11 points in the game, but never trailed by more than a single point.

COACH JARET von ROSENBERG AFTER THE GAME
On the slower pace of the game: "I thought we really went on a stretch where we got stops, executed at a high level and got to the free throw line, and made some shots. I like that our team can play multiple styles. We can play fast and we can score when teams want to play fast, and we can slow it down and execute."
 
On the end of regulation and the response in overtime: "Obviously we want to clean up how we ended that game. They banked in some shots and we're looking at what can we do differently as a coaching staff and as players. At the end of the day, it's great resilience to blow a 10 point lead, give up the first point of overtime, then really control it the rest of the way."
 
On the bench's contributions: "Guys have to make the most of their minutes. Josh Winbush had great minutes and did really good things. He was part of that stretch where we made a run. All in all, I thought everyone who played did some things well, and did some things that we need to go back and look at."
 
On the tough finishes in both games this week: "It's the Lone Star. We played two old LSC teams who we've seen a million times and our fans have seen a million times … It's going to come down to the last four minutes. We'd like to be cruising with 10 minutes because we've got such a big lead, but that's usually not the case. We've got to continue to learn. It's good to win the games where you've got things to clean up, and we were able to do that twice this week."


HOW IT HAPPENED
The first half of the contest was closely played for the entire 20 minutes, as neither team led by more than two possessions at any point. Grandstaff opened the game with a three-pointer, followed by a pair of Mustang baskets. Barrett took the lead back with a trey of his own and the Lions only fell behind by one point in the rest of the half.
 
The Lions were on fire from long distance and at one point were 7-of-8 from behind the arc. After trailing 15-14 with 12:21 left in the first half, A&M-Commerce went on a 10-3 run. Back-to-back triples from Stewart and Barrett pushed the Lion lead to 24-18 with 7:48 to go in the period for the largest lead.
 
MSU cut the margin down to one point, but the Mustangs made only one field goal in the last six minutes and A&M-Commerce took a 35-31 lead into the locker room at the break. 21 of the Lions' points came from behind the arc.
 
The opening stages of the second half were much of the same, as the Lions would go up by two possessions, only to see the Mustangs nearly immediately get the lead back down to three points. This changed after six minutes of play, as Stewart and Darnell Wright (Chicago, Ill.) made consecutive baskets to give A&M-Commerce its largest lead of the game to that point at 48-41 with 13:16 left in regulation.
 
Midwestern State was able to cut that lead to two points, but got no closer until the end of the regulation periods. The Lions went on a six-point run over the course of a minute-and-a-half on buckets by Stewart, Josh Winbush (Lake Charles, La.), and Barrett. The Barrett layup gave the Lions their first double digit lead of the game at 69-58 with 1:27 to go.
 
In the final 1:27, the Lions made no field goals but went 5-of-7 from the free throw line. This proved important, as the Mustangs frantically charged back and outscored the Lions 16-5 in that span to force overtime. A trio of Mustang three-pointers were tightly contested and two were long but banked in. A late Stewart three-point attempt was missed, and the game headed to the extra period.
 
The Mustangs made the first free throw of the overtime period, but the visitors' hot shooting in the late stages of regulation did not translate into the extra time, as the Mustangs went three-and-a-half minutes without making a field goal. Two layups by Stewart had the Lions ahead 78-75, and a Grandstaff three-point play made it a four-point game at 81-77. MSU cut the lead to one point, but a pair of Barrett free throws put the lead back at three and strong Lion defense did not allow the Mustangs a quality shot late. The Lions went 5-for-5 from the free throw stripe in the overtime, while MSU was 1-of-3.