COMMERCE – The Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team defeated St. Mary's 65-58 on Saturday afternoon. In a close tilt throughout, the Lions finished the game on a 10-3 run to pick up their first conference win of the season.
 
The win brings the Lions to 2-1 on the season and 1-0 in the Lone Star Conference. The Rattlers fall to 0-2 on the season and 0-1 in conference play.
 
The teams will meet again on Sunday in game two of the double header home opening weekend. The game will be played at 4:30 p.m. at the Field House.
 
HEAD COACH JARET VON ROSENBERG AFTER THE GAME
- On gritting out a win: "Before the game, you want to be firing on all cylinders. We wanted to be able to shoot threes and get stops and have it be a clean game. But basketball is not always like that. There were a lot of good things that we did and we gritted it out and made a few more plays than they did towards the end. It was just ugly, but the sign of a good team is to be able to win ugly games, so hopefully that will be a trend that continues, because we don't expect to shoot it well every night."
- The close out play of Bethely: "He's played so many college basketball games. He just made winning plays- got some rebounds, got some loose balls. He was able to get fouled. I thought it was really positive, especially in the last two minutes. We did the things we need to do."
- On the play of Tuttle: "He looked good on the floor and got us into our offense and made good plays. It seemed like he was able to put pressure on the ball defensively without fouling. He set the tone on that side of the ball. This is the most he's played in a long time."
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- 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.
- The Lions shot 38 percent in the game, including 24 percent from behind the arc. The Lions made 16 free throws to bolster their scoring effort.
- Devin Bethely (Baton Rouge, La.) 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.
- Carson Tuttle (Mukilteo, Wash.) added 11 points, 10 of which came in the first half.
- JJ Romer Rosario (Hialeah Gardens, Fla.) added nine points while Leo Lara (Santa Rosa) and Demarcus Demonia (Fort Washington, Md.) added seven points apiece.
- The Lion bench outscored the StMU bench 31-13.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Rattlers scored the first two buckets of the game, taking a quick 5-0 lead. The Lions hit a pair of threes to pull back to tie the game at 9-all after five minutes of play. The teams had spurts of scoring and spurts of cold spells, trading mini runs. The Lions took their first lead at the 10-minute mark of the half, leading by two.
 
The teams continued to trade leads, as the Lions led for more than three minutes in a back-and-forth affair before the Rattlers took the lead back and went on a run. With five minutes to go in the half, the Rattlers led 28-22. The Lions stemmed the tide, keeping the game within reach. The Lions scored the final four points of the half to go into halftime trailing 34-32.
 
The Lions shot 41 percent in the first half. However, they struggled from behind the arc, shooting just 25 percent. Tuttle led the Lions with 10 points in the first half, while Romer Rosario had five points. Nine different Lions had points in the first half. There were seven ties and four lead changes in the half.
 
After an early three for the Lions, the Rattlers pushed their lead to four points early in the second half. The Lions clawed back and took the lead back near the 15-minute mark of the half. The Lions had several stellar defensive plays, including a block at the rim by Leo Lara to deny a flush from the Rattlers. However, StMU began a push to once again establish a lead, going on a 9-0 run to take a 46-39 lead at the 12-minute mark.
 
The Lions fought back and over the next two minutes fought to tie the game at 50 at the midway point of the half. The teams continued to battle as for the next six minutes, the teams traded buckets and made strong defensive stops. With four minutes to play, the teams were tied at 55.
 
The defensive battle continued as neither team could make a push until Bethely hit a three off of a screen to put the Lions in the lead with two minutes remaining. Bethely also hit several free throws late in the game to ice the game for A&M-Commerce.