SILVER CITY, N.M. – For the first time in their program history, the Western New Mexico Mustangs defended home court against the Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball, downing the Lions, 74-68 at the Drag's Court on Thursday night.
 
The Lions suffer their third loss in the last five games to drop to 4-3 Lone Star Conference play and 12-4 overall. This was their first loss in Silver City. The Mustangs improve to 9-5 overall and 2-1 in LSC play.
 
HEAD COACH JARET VON ROSENBERG AFTER THE GAME
On overall thoughts of the game: "We did not deserve to win tonight. They played better, harder than us. They caught us on our heels, outrebounded us, and made the 50-50 plays. We seemed to panic a little bit, we just did not play hard to start the game. We played hard in the final five minutes, but they did not miss their free throws, so we never had a chance to fight back. It was not going to be easy to win here. They are a tough team; they get after it. It is disappointing to see that a team played noticeably harder than we did. It is hard to win college basketball games when you don't play hard.
 
On pulling close late: Our problem in the first half was transition defense and we had no pace offensively throughout the game. Credit to Western New Mexico, they outplayed and outcoached us tonight.
 
On Lone Star Conference's depth: The conference is definitely deeper and tougher this year, you have to show up to play every game. You cannot be 80 percent of yourself and have a chance to win, we made it a close game late, but they were the tougher team and got what they wanted.
 
After not having trailed in the last two games, the Lions had the lead for just two minutes in the first half and four minutes in the game. The Lions shot 28.6 percent from the field through the first 20 minutes. Despite holding the Mustangs to a shooting percentage of .306 in the first half, the Lions trailed 30-28 at halftime.
 
Demarcus Demonia (Fort Washington, Md.) gave the Lions their first lead at the 12:26 mark of the first half, making four straight free throws. The Lions took the lead by going on an 8-0 run after falling behind 15-9. Demonia had seven points in the first half and totaled nine points, six rebounds, three assists, and two steals in the game.
 
The Lions' second lead of the first half came on a layup by Alex Peavy (San Antonio – Smithson Valley) at the 7:11 mark, a 23-22 lead. Mustangs scored the next four points to jump out front again.
 
Augustine Ene drilled a three pointer to give the Lions a 33-32 lead, their first lead since the 6:46 mark of the first half, with 17:54 left in the second half. Ene also had four rebounds in the game.
 
The Lions' last lead of the game came at the 15:19 mark of the second half on a three pointer by JJ Romer Rosario (Hialeah Gardens, Fla.), but it lasted just eight seconds as a three pointer on the other end gave the Mustangs' a 39-38 lead.
 
Khaliq Abdul-Mateen (Cy-Lakes) cut the deficit to five points with an and-one with 9:21 to go. Western New Mexico answered with an 8-0 run over three minutes to take a 61-48 lead, its biggest of the game.
 
Down by 12 with five minutes to go, the Lions cut it to 62-55 by going on a mini 5-0 run. The Mustangs knocked down their free throws each time to keep the Lions at bay.
 
Western New Mexico shot 24 for 27 from the line and shot 35.6 from the field, while the Lions shot 35.7 percent. The Lions went 10 for 32 from beyond-the-arc and 18 for 21 from the line.
 
Carson Tuttle (Mukilteo, Wash.) had three three pointers in the final 1:18, but the Lions did not get the game to one possession. The smallest lead for the Mustangs in the final minute was four points. Tuttle scored career-best 19 points, making five three pointers and grabbed five rebounds.
 
Alphonso Willis (Atlanta, Ga.) tallied 12 points and four rebounds. Abdul-Mateen also totaled five rebounds. Romer Rosario and Clashon Gaffney (Clarksville) had two blocks each.
 
Off the bench, Romer Rosario scored seven points, Peavy scored eight and had three rebounds. Lion bench outscored the Mustangs, 39-10.  
 
UP NEXT
The Lions are off for a week before hosting two games next weekend. A&M-Commerce's next game comes against Texas A&M-Kingsville on Thursday, January 27, at 7:30 p.m. and it also hosts Texas A&M International on Saturday, January 29, at 4 p.m. before heading on the road for four games.