COMMERCE – The Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team fought back from a 15-point deficit Friday night and powered to a 79-75 win over UT Tyler in the Field House.
 
With the win, the Lions move to 4-3 overall and 3-2 in the Lone Star Conference, while the Patriots fall to 1-8 overall and 1-8 in league play.
 
The Lions and Patriots meet up again on Saturday evening at 5:30 p.m.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Both teams took 58 shots in the game, with A&M-Commerce making 28 field goals to the Patriots' 27.
- Demarcus Demonia (Fort Washington, Md.) led all scorers with 21 points, also grabbing five rebounds and passing out four assists.
- Augustine Ene (Carrollton – Creekview) scored 19 points, with all of his field goals coming from long range, as he made five three-pointers.
- Donald Ghostone (Grand Prairie) and Dante Adams (Osceola, Ark.) each had career scoring highs off the bench with 15 points and 11 points, respectively. Adams added a team-high seven rebounds.
- Devin Bethely (Baton Rouge, La.) scored 11 points and had eight assists with no turnovers, which will certainly extend his LSC lead in assist-to-turnover ratio.

ASSOCIATE HEAD COACH COLEMAN FURST AFTER THE GAME
On falling behind early:
"I thought we came out sluggish and didn't handle their press or ball pressure very well. We didn't get back in transition. I think that was what had us down early in the game and made it a hard hole to climb out of. I'm proud of the guys for fighting in an ugly game to come back and get a win."

On what led to the comeback:
"Our defense allowed us to come back in the game. We started playing more aggressively on offense because of our intensity on defense and we started playing downhill and getting to the rim, which was huge for us." 

On the challenge of a back-to-back set of games:
"We've got some key players out and a lot of guys who played a lot of minutes tonight. It's important to get home tonight, hydrate, get off of our our feet, then flip the switch and make sure we succeed in an 80-minute weekend."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Lions won the tip and scored the opening basket on a Demonia dunk, and that two-point advantage remained intact for four minutes before the Patriots went on a 14-2 run. The guests held a 19-9 advantage with 13:28 left in. the half.
 
A&M-Commerce responded with a 19-4 rally with Bethely and Ghostone scoring three each followed by four from Demonia. That volley cut the visitors' lead down to 23-19 with just under seven minutes to play.

UT Tyler quickly answered with a 17-6 run in just under five minutes, pushing the lead to 15 points at 40-25 with 2:14 to go in the half. A&M-Commerce scored six straight headed into the final minute and the UT Tyler halftime lead stood at 42-31.
 
The Lions shot 39.3 percent (11-of-28) in the half while UT Tyler was 16-of-29 (55.2 percent). Ene was the leading scorer for both teams at the intermission with nine points.
 
The Patriots matched their game-high lead of 15 points at the 16:11 mark of the second half before the Lions roared back. A&M-Commerce went on a 17-7 run over the next four minutes, cutting the lead to five points at 53-48 with 12:15 to go.
 
After UT Tyler pushed its lead back out to nine points, the Lions scored the next nine points with five from Demonia and four from Ghostone. That rally tied the game up at 60-all with just under 10 minutes remaining.
 
Despite tying the contest, the Lions found that gaining the lead would be a challenge. A&M-Commerce saw its deficit grow back to as many as five points, but the home side simply took over the game in the final five minutes.
 
After trailing 71-67 with 5:30 to play, the Lions outscored UT Tyler 12-4 in the final span. UT Tyler did not make a field goal in the final six minutes until a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer, and A&M-Commerce was on fire.
 
An Adams three-pointer and a thunderous pair of Demonia dunks were exclamation points on the Lions' late comeback. The victory marked the fourth time in the last four seasons where the Lions won after trailing with five minutes to play.