COMMERCE – Despite both teams holding eight-point leads in the second half, the Southeastern Louisiana Lions stormed back to beat the East Texas A&M University men's basketball team by a score of 76-68 on Monday afternoon on the Hunt Regional Healthcare Court in the Field House.
 
East Texas A&M had a three-point lead at the half and extended it to 49-41 at the 11:55 mark of the second half, but SLU put together 10-2 run to tie the game at 51 with 8:26 to play. Another 11-0 scoring run followed for Southeastern, who led 68-60 with 1:38 to play and stretched it to 10 in the final seconds of the game.
 
The two teams combined for 32 fouls in the game, with East Texas A&M committing 25 and Southeastern committing 18, both teams were called for a double-technical foul after the half-time buzzer as well. Southeastern went 26 for 29 at the line, including 18 for 19 in the second, while East Texas A&M went 10 for 18.
 
The loss drops East Texas A&M to 2-17 on the season, having lost seven in a row, and 0-8 in Southland Conference play, which is the worst start to conference play since 1991-92. Southeastern is now 11-8 overall, 5-3 in conference play, and 5-1 all-time against ET.
 
East Texas A&M shot 7 for 14 from deep in the first half, but just 5 for 15 in the second half. Southeastern had the 40-22 advantage in points in the paint and outrebounded East Texas A&M, 41-29.
 
Evan Phelps (Duncanville) hit four shots from outside the three-point arc in the first half, but battled foul trouble in the second half, going 0 for 3 in deep, finishing the game with 13 points. Yusef Salih (Gainesville, Va.) added 10 points, scoring nine in the second half, while Scooter Williams Jr. (Chattanooga, Tenn.) added 13 points off the bench, scoring nine in the second half as well.
 
The Lions had one player foul out, two more players with four fouls, and three with three fouls. In the second half, East Texas A&M was called for 15 fouls, Southeastern was charged with nine and was in the bonus with 13:56 to play in the game.
 
For Southeastern, Sam Hines Jr. led the way with 23 points, while Jakevion Buckley added 19 points and Brody Rowbury scored 17. Buckley went 5 for 9 from the field and 4 for 4 at the line in the second half for 14 points, while Rowbury scored 13 in the second half, going 9 for 10 at the line.
 
Both Rowbury and Jeremy Elyzee had 10 rebounds each, while both Demarco Bethea (Sellars, S.C.) and Williams Jr. led East Texas A&M with five rebounds each.
 

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UP NEXT
East Texas A&M plays its next two games on the road, traveling to Lamar on Saturday at 6 p.m. and at SFA next Monday at 6:30 p.m.