Commerce, Texas

The Texas A&M-Commerce men's basketball team put together a solid all-around team effort to knock off No. 23 Texas A&M-Kingsville, 78-63 on Saturday afternoon in the A&M-Commerce Field House.

Both teams landed four players in double figures. The Lions got a pair of double-double performances from junior Champ Sylvester, who scored 13 points and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds and senior Brad Brickens, who added 11 points and dished out a game-high 10 assists. Junior Kevin Widemond, who scored a team-high 17, joined the duo in double figures and redshirt junior Leonard Bishop added a career-high 15 in the win. The win snaps a four-game losing streak for the Lions to raise their record to 7-8.

With the loss, Texas A&M-Kingsville falls for only the second time on the season, dropping to 13-2. Ricky Huckaby scored a game-high 18, Remi Yustuf added 15, Reggie Love and Stephen Story chipped in 13 and 10, respectively to lead the Javelinas.

After Huckaby got the Javelinas within two, 16-14 with 10:02 left in the first half, the Lions went on a 10-0 over the next 3:17 to take a 26-14 lead. The No. 23 Javelinas came back with a 16-5 run to close out the opening half with a 32-31 lead at the intermission. Texas A&M-Commerce was led by the six points from Widemond on a pair of three pointers and made 7 of 10 free throws. Story scored 10 points to lead the Javelinas, who shot 44.4% from the field in the first half.

In the second half, the two teams exchanged leads on three occasions before the Lions took control of the contest. Texas A&M-Kingsville managed to get the deficit to one on six occasions as late as 6:20 left in the contest. With a 54-53 lead, Texas A&M-Commerce outscored the Javelinas 24-10 for the remainder of the contest. Down the stretch, Bishop scored eight of his 15 and the Lions knocked down three three-pointers and made 9 of 11 free throws to seal the win.

Next, the Lions will take on Central Oklahoma, who will be coming off a win over Tarleton and their upcoming encounter against Northeastern State on Monday has already been postponed. The contest will begin Lone Star Conference North Division play for both teams.