COMMERCE – The Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team returns to action this weekend with a home-and-home set with Arkansas-Fort Smith, starting with the game in Arkansas on Friday night.
 
WHO: A&M-Commerce at UAFS
WHERE: Fort Smith, Ark. | Stubblefield Center
WHEN: 5:30 p.m. on Friday, January 15
RECORDS: A&M-Commerce is 2-2 on the season entering the weekend. UAFS is 1-3. This is the first North Division game for both teams.

TELEVISION/LIVE VIDEO: Lone Star Conference Digital Network (Direct Link)
RADIO: Lion Sports Network | KETR-FM 88.9 (Streaming on KETR.org)
LIVE STATS: Click HERE

LIONS HEAD TO ARKANSAS
• The Lions return to action with the first leg of a home-and-home series with UAFS on Thursday night in a divisional game.
• A&M-Commerce last split a series with St. Mary's on January 2 and 3.
• The Lions lost the second game of the weekend series by a 68-61 score to the Rattlers.
• The Lions held the lead briefly in the first half, but trailed for more than 38 minutes of the contest.
• Augustine Ene led the team with 18 points, all of which came in the second half.
• Rodney Brown approached a double-double with eight points and 12 rebounds. Devin Bethely added eight points and four assists. Carson Tuttle had six points and a team-high five assists.
• The Lions were held to 33 percent shooting in the game, while St. Mary's shot 44 percent.
• A&M-Commerce had 23 offensive rebounds and scored 17 second-chance points.
• The 61 points was the fewest points scored by the Lions in the Field House since 2017.
 
• The Lions won the first game of the weekend, 65-58, over StMU.
• With the game tied at 55 with two minutes left, the Lions finished the game on a 10-3 run to get the win.
• There were 12 ties and seven lead changes in the game. The Lions led for just 7:06 of the contest.
• Devin Bethely led the Lions with 12 points in the contest, including the final eight points for A&M-Commerce. He also led the team with eight rebounds and seven assists.
• This was the Lions' first home win with a score in the 60s since 2018 (67-66 over West Texas A&M), and the lowest home winning score since defeating East Central 65-63 in the regular season finale on Feb. 26, 2011.
 
BETHELY LEADS LSC IN EFFICIENCY
• Senior point guard Devin Bethely is the LSC's leader in assist-to-turnover ratio by a wide margin, dishing out 3.6 assists to every turnover committed.
• He is the only player in the LSC averaging over 3.0 assists to turnovers.
• This mark ranks 16th in the nation, with Michael Bradley of Mercyhurst averaging 17.0 A/TO in three games.
• Bethely's 6.2 assists per game ranks second in the LSC and eighth nationally. Lubbock Christian's Cameron Copley leads the LSC with 32 assists in four games.
 
LSC ASSIST/TURNOVER

Rk	Player	School	Ast	TO	A/T
1	Devin Bethely	TAMUC	25	7	3.6
2	Pierre Sanders	MSU	30	11	2.7
3	Paul Williams	ASU	23	9	2.6
4	Cameron Copley	LCU	32	13	2.5
5	Carson Hughes	DBU	23	11	2.1

 
LSC ASSISTS/GAME

Rk	Player	School	Ast	Gm	APG
1	Cameron Copley	LCU	32	4	8.0
2	Devin Bethely	TAMUC	25	4	6.3
3	Daniel Venzant	SEU	37	6	6.2
4	JoJo Murray	WT	21	4	5.3
5	Pierre Sanders	MSU	30	7	4.3

 
DIVISION II ASSISTS/GAME

Rk	Player	School	Ast	Gm	APG
1	Braden Olsen	Gannon	12	1	12.0
2	Sam Rolle IV	Davis & Elkins	19	2	9.5
3	Cameron Copley	Lubbock Chr.	32	4	8.0
4	Nick Edwards	Glenville St.	16	2	8.0
5	Quawn Marshall	Henderson St.	15	2	7.5
6	Jacob Drees	Cedarville	27	4	6.8
7	DeJuan Jones	Ark.-Monticello	19	3	6.3
8	Devin Bethely	TAMUC	25	4	6.2
	Jordan Forbes	Salem	25	4	6.2
10	Parker Black	Ohio Valley	31	5	6.2

 
ALL-TIME vs. UAFS
• This is the sixth all-time meeting between these two prides of Lions, with A&M-Commerce holding a 3-2 all-time record.
• A&M-Commerce is 0-2 in the Stubblefield Center, with a one-point loss in 2017 on the night the TAMUC football team won the NCAA Division II National Championship and was Jaret von Rosenberg's first loss as a collegiate head coach.
• A&M-Commerce also suffered a 75-65 loss in the regular season finale last year.
• The two programs faced off three times last season, with A&M-Commerce winning in the opening round of the LSC Championship Tournament.
 
LOOKING AT LION HISTORY
• This is the 24th time the Lions have played on January 15, with a 13-10 record on this date and a 9-7 road record.
• This is only the third time the Lions have been out of state on this date.
• January 15 games have been unusually close for the Lions historically, with 9 of 24 games decided by one possession and 15 games by five points or fewer. TAMUC is 6-3 in the one-possession games and 10-5 in games decided by five or fewer.
• This is the fourth straight road game on this date.
 
D2SIDA REGIONAL RANKINGS
• The first D2SIDA Regional Rankings of the season has been announced for games through January 10.
• D2SIDA will rank six teams per region this season.
 

Rk	School (1st)	Rec	Votes
1.	West Texas A&M (3)	3-1	31
2.	Colorado School of Mines (2)	8-0	29
3.	DBU (1)	5-1	26
4.	Colorado Mesa	7-0	22
5.	Tex. A&M-Kingsville	7-1	8
	St. Edward's	5-1	8

RV: Lubbock Christian, 1; Black Hills St., 1.

CAREER PERCENTAGE LEADERS
• Head coach Jaret von Rosenberg is ranked third in school history in career winning percentage.
 

Rk	Coach	W	Record
1.	Bob Rogers	.769	113-34
2.	Will Hill Acker	.708	46-19
3.	Jaret von Rosenberg	.673	66-32
4.	Darrell Tully	.621	59-36
5.	Dennis Vinzant	.605	92-60
6.	Sam Walker	.585	285-202
7.	Norman Pilgrim	.547	152-126
8.	Paul Peak	.532	134-118
9.	Jim Gudger	.515	202-190
10.	Jerry Matthews	.440	99-126