COMMERCE – After a week off due to wintry weather, the Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team is back in action on Saturday to face Southeastern in Hammond.

WHO: A&M-Commerce at Southeastern
WHERE: Hammond, La. | Pride Roofing University Center
WHEN: Saturday, January 20 | 3:30 p.m.
RECORDS: A&M-Commerce is 6-10 on the season and 0-3 in Southland action, while Southeastern is 6-11 overall and 1-3 against Southland opponents.       
RANKINGS: Neither team is nationally ranked.  

LISTEN: 88.9 FM KETR | http://ketr.org
LIVE VIDEO: ESPN+ | https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/eventCalendarId/401579078
LIVE STATS: https://lionsports.net/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
GAME NOTES: TAMUC

SERIES HISTORY AGAINST SOUTHEASTERN
• A&M-Commerce and Southeastern are meeting for the fourth time overall and first time this season.
• Last season, SLU won 79-73 at home and picked up a 78-76 overtime win in Commerce, which included two buzzer-beaters.
• Prior to A&M-Commerce joining the Southland, the teams met once prior in 1972, which was also a SLU win.

UNPRECENTED START TO CONFERENCE PLAY
• The Lions are 0-3 to start conference play, which is its worst start to conference play since 2011-12, starting 0-4 that season.

WILLIAMS BURSTS OUT AGAINST HUSKIES
• Kalen Williams scored 28 points in the loss to Houston Christian, finishing as the leading scorer on the team for the sixth time this season.
• He totaled 33 points in the win over Northern Colorado, which is a new career-high.
• He is the first 30-point scorer for the Lions this season and just the third since 2020.

BREWER JR. SHINES AGAINST MCNEESE
• Against the Cowboys, Jerome Brewer Jr. scored 32 points, surpassing his career-high.
• He is the second Lion to score 30 or more points this season and has scored 20 or more points in three of his last four games.

SUCCESS IN CONFERENCE OPENERS ENDS
• The Lions lost to McNeese last Saturday, which was its first loss in the conference-opening game since 2020-21.
• Under coach Jaret von Rosenberg, the Lions are now 5-2 in conference openers.

ONE FOR THE RECORD BOOKS AGAINST THE PATRIOTS
• Four school records fell in the win over Arlington Baptist, which was the final game prior to the holiday break.
• The four records broken were field goal percentage (.689), blocks (18), and assists (36), and first half points (63).
• The 130 points scored are third-most in school history.
• The Lions scored 100 points in back-to-back games for the first time since 2014 and just the second time in program history.

ROARED BACK TO DOWN THE BEARS
• The Lions came back from being double-digits to tie the game on a last-second shot against Northern Colorado.
• A&M-Commerce played its first double overtime game since 2017 and hung on to win 101-99, behind 33 points from Kalen Williams and 24 from Jerome Brewer Jr., both were career highs.

A RARITY ON NEW YEARS DAY
• The game against TCU was the fourth time that the Lions are playing on New Year's Day and first time since 2008.
• The Lions are now 3-1 all time on the first day of the year with wins over Ouachita Baptist (2002), St. Edward's (2005), and Southern Arkansas (2008).

STEALS RECORD FALLS AGAINST DALLAS CHRISTIAN
• A&M-Commerce recorded 19 steals in the 100-48 win over Dallas Christian, which is the new program record.
• The 19 steals are a new program record, while Khaliq Abdul-Mateen recorded five steals, which is tied for third most in school history.
• In the game, the Lions also recorded 25 assists, which is tied for seventh most in a game.

PIONEERS END LIONS' WINNING STREAK
• Denver led throughout the way to win over A&M-Commerce, ending the Lions' three-game winning streak.
• The Lions came back from being down 16 to pull to within one, but the Pioneers went back up to double digits for the win.

LIONS WIN THREE IN A ROW
• The Lions had won three in a row coming into the game against Denver.
• The three-game winning streak tied the longest in the Division I era, which they did twice last season. Once in non-conference play and once in SLC games.

SECOND IN THE WILDCAT CHALLENGE
• In three games of the Wildcat Challenge, the Lions went 2-1, with wins over Stonehill and Saint Joseph's, while falling at Kentucky.
• The 2-1 winning record in a multi-team event is a first in the Division I era and best since going 2-0 in their home tournament in 2021-22.

GROUNDED THE HAWKS
• After a record-setting win against Science & Arts, the Lions went to Philadelphia and upset Saint Joseph's 57-54.
• The Lions led wire-to-wire in the win over the Hawks and it is the highest ranked win based on KenPom rankings in school history.
• Saint Joseph's has since picked up a win over No. 18 ranked Villanova.

RECORDS FALL IN WIN OVER DROVERS
• The Lions downed Science & Arts by 50 points, which was the first win of the season and the home opener as well.
• A&M-Commerce's point total of 113 is fourth all-time, 42 three-point attempts tied the program record and 19 three-pointers made are third in program history.
• Every Lion that appeared in the game scored at least two points against the Drovers.

HOME AT LAST
• After a long road trip to start the season, the Lions were at home to face the Drovers.
• Outside of last season when the Lions played their first home game of the season in their seventh overall game, four games is the longest stretch since 2014-15.

HAD THE WILDCATS ON THE ROPES
• The Lions scored the first eight points at No. 16 Kentucky and led by as much as 13 over the Wildcats.
• Kentucky stormed back, despite trailing for most of the first half, to gone to win by 20 at home.

TOUGH SLATE TO START 2023-24
• The Lions begin the 2023-24 season with three straight games against major conference opponents, which includes two nationally ranked teams.
• In their season opening trip, the Lions played at nationally ranked Texas A&M and Kentucky as well as Texas Tech and Purdue Fort Wayne,
• The first three games of the season for the Lions were against Quad 'A' opponents.
• The Lions went 0-4 to start the season, which is the first since 2007-08.

BIG RUN PULLS AGGIES AWAY FROM LIONS
• Early in the first half in College Station, the Lions went on a 11-1 run to pull to within one of No. 15/19 Texas A&M, but the Aggies answered with a 26-5 run in the rest of the first half to pull away for the first win of the season.

BREWER JR. EARNS PRESEASON ACCOLADES
• This preseason, Jerome Brewer Jr. was named to the preseason second team all-conference team by the Southland Conference.
• He was also named the preseason Southland Defensive Player of the Year by the Field of 68.
• He has been the leading scorer for the Lions in seven games.
   
LOOKING TO BUILD UPON A STRONG 2022-23
• In their first season in NCAA Division I and the Southland Conference, the Lions went 13-20 overall and posted a conference record of 9-9 to finish fifth in the 10-team Southland Conference.
• In non-conference play, the Lions won true road games at Air Force and Hawaii as well as a neutral site win over Eastern Kentucky.
 
VON ROSENBERG PICKS UP WIN NO. 100
• By beating Nicholls at the end of last season, coach Jaret von Rosenberg became the sixth coach in program history to win 100 career games as the Lions' head coach.  
 
SEVENTH IN THE SLC
• For the second straight season, the Lions were picked seventh in the preseason Southland poll.
• Southeastern is the preseason favorite to win the Southland.
 
RE-TOOLED ROSTER
• The Lions return just three starters from last season's Southland Tournament team and add nine newcomers to the roster this season.
• Of the nine newcomers, six are transfers and three are freshmen.
• The transfers for the Lions include former NCAA Division I as well as junior college transfers.
• The newcomers include two from Alabama, Texas, Georgia, one each from Canada, Louisiana, Massachusetts.
 
ROBERTS AND DEMONIA MAKE SC TOP 10
• Last season, the Lions appeared on SportCenter's Top 10 plays twice and it happened on the same night, in the win at Nicholls.
• C.J. Roberts' game-winner appeared at No. 9, while Demarcus Demonia's game-tying alley oop dunk appeared at No. 3.
• Based on our research, this was the first occurence last season that the same team had two plays featured on the same night.
 
HISTORIC STRETCH FOR THE LIONS
• On their last road trip of the regular season, the Lions picked up a road wins at the 2021-22 Southland Champion, Nicholls and 2022-23 Southland Champion, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and took the Islanders to overtime in the season finale at home.
 
OVERTIME SURVIVORS
• The Lions went to overtime five times last season, which is tied with the 2017-18 for the most overtime games in a season.
• A&M-Commerce went 3-2 in overtime.
 
LIONS' MAKING STOPS
• A&M-Commerce finished the regular season allowing 73.2 points per game, which is fourth in the Southland.
• The Lions have allowed 69 points or less in 13 games.
 
NO..NO..NO..NOT TODAY!
• The Lions blocked 3.06 shots per game, which was third in the Southland.
• In 2021-22, A&M-Commerce finished second in NCAA Division II with an average of 5.7 blocks per game.
 
LIONS APPEAR IN NATIONAL RANKINGS
• In the preseason, A&M-Commerce is ranked No. 283 in the  KenPom rankings.
• A&M-Commerce is the fourth rated team in the Southland by KenPom.
 
A HISTORIC FIRST WIN
• A&M-Commerce collected its first win in NCAA Division I on November 14, 2022, prevailing in overtime over Air Force.
• The Lions trailed by as much six points in overtime, but sealed the win via a dunk by Demarcus Demonia.
• The Lions moved up nine spots in the KenPom rankings following the win.
 
ALOHA LIONS
• A&M-Commerce picked up a thrilling 53-51 win at Hawaii on November 30, 2022.
• The Lions led by as much as 14 points in the game, which was the largest Hawaii had faced up to that point this season.
• A&M-Commerce had the lead for nearly 33 minutes, while Hawaii had only trailed for only 19 minutes all season prior to the game.
• The Lions jumped up 20 spots in the KenPom rankings following the win over the Rainbow Warriors.
 
A&M-COMMERCE ENTERS SECOND YEAR IN NCAA DIVISION I
• The Lions begin the second season in NCAA Division I FCS this year. 
• It is also the second season for the Lions in the Southland Conference.
• A&M-Commerce will be eligible for the NCAA Tournament during the 2026-27
season.
 
SLC MEMBERS IN 2023-24
A&M-COMMERCE
Houston Christian
Incarnate Word
Lamar
McNeese
New Orleans
Nicholls State
Northwestern State
Southeastern
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi