Ouachita Baptist forward Memo Rodriguez hit a three pointer with five seconds on the clock to knock off Texas A&M University-Commerce, 74-73, to spoil the home opener for the Lions.

A&M-Commerce led for most of the contest but it was a resilient Tigers squad that came up with the win. Trailing by two, 73-71, the Tigers forced an A&M-Commerce turnover and called back-to-back timeouts before setting the stage for the last-second heroics by Rodriguez. After the three pointer by Rodriguez, the Lions hurriedly brought the ball up the court but were unable to get a shot off before time expired for the OBU win.

A&M-Commerce (0-3) led for a majority of the contest, trailing only once early in the contest at 6-3 and again after the decisive three pointer by Rodriguez. Senior Kevin Widemond kept the Lions in the game as he scored a game-high 22 points in the loss. He was joined in double figures by Scooby Johnson, who added 17 and Rashad Brown chipped in 10. Widemond was four-for-eight from beyond the arc and a perfect eight-for-eight from the free-throw line.

Ouachita Baptist (1-1) landed three in double figures, including 18 from Ed Keyes, 17 from Daniel Maddox and 16 from Rodriguez. The taller Tigers out rebounded the Lions by 12, 41-29, including a 15-9 margin on the offensive side.

A&M-Commerce held a 10-point advantage, 63-53, when Brent Stanton made the first of two free throws but the Tigers clawed back into the game with a 12-5 run to cut the Lions lead to 68-65 when Maddox converted a three-point play. A tip in by Brown for A&M-Commerce extended the margin back to five, 70-65, with 4:42 left in the game. Despite a free throw by Stanton, back-to-back baskets by Keyes trimmed the margin to two, 71-69, with 3:14 left in the game. Brown added another tip in but the margin remained two when Jaranimo Marks scored on an uncontested layup to cut the margin to two with 2:34 left. Each team had an opportunity down the stretch but it was the three pointer by Rodriguez that closed out the contest for the victorious Tigers.

The Lions will have a rematch against the Tigers on Monday night in Arkadelphia at 7:00 pm and that game can be heard live on KETR.