Lions knock off Patriots for 10th win of season

Texas A&M University-Commerce overcame a slow start and took control midway through the second half, coming away with a 92-88 win over Dallas Baptist on Monday at the Burg Center.
 
The win is the 10^th of the season for the Lions (10-1) and marks the quickest A&M-Commerce has reached double digits in the win column since the 1996-97 season.
 
In a game that featured 11 lead changes, A&M-Commerce took the lead for good on a three-pointer from Devondrick Walker at the 15:56 mark of the second half and pushed the lead to as much as 10 before hitting seven of 10 from the line in the final two minutes to hold off the Patriots (4-5), who got to within three of the Lions in the game's final minute.
 
Five Lions finished in double figures, led by Tyrie Wooten and Kameron Price with 16 points apiece. Meanwhile, Christian Macauley picked up his third double-double of the year with 11 points and 13 rebounds, while adding to his league-leading total with four blocks.   
 
Meanwhile, Cameron Blue provided a spark in the first half with nine of his 13 points coming in the opening 20 minutes, and Walker ended the night with 11 points and four rebounds.
 
In all, A&M-Commerce finished with 11 three-point buckets on the night  and had assists on half of its 28 buckets while also hitting 25 of its 31 foul shots.
 
DBU put four players in double figures themselves, led by Jason Gentry's game-high 22 points, and 19 more from Jonathan Perry.
 
It took the Lions a while to get rolling in the first half, as the Patriots jumped out to a quick 12-2 lead within the game's first five minutes and eventually led by as much as 12 on a foul shot from Jordan Pratt that made it a 17-5 DBU lead.  A&M-Commerce hit just three of its first 16 shots from the floor before a three from Tyrie Wooten finally helped the Lions start chipping away at the DBU lead.
 
An 11-4 run followed, ending when Walker found Blue for a two-handed dunk that brought the Lion deficit to 21-19. A&M-Commerce finally hurdled past the Patriots on a pair of foul shots from Kenny Brown with 6:08 remaining in the half.
 
From there the teams managed to exchange the lead four times in the next six possessions, but it was a three-point shot from De'Andre Carson that gave the Lions a 33-31 lead that they managed to maintain for nearly three minutes; however, the Patriots scored six of the final eight points of the period to take a 41-40 lead into the break.
 
The teams traded the lead back and forth four more times to open the second half before Price found Walker for the go-ahead three. That was the first field goal of a 13-2 run that gave the Lions the lead for good. They eventually got the advantage up to 10 at 67-57 on a layup from Donovan Gage, and ended up hitting 15 of their 27 shots from the floor in the half, including half of their 10 threes. 
 
A&M-Commerce managed to keep the Patriots at arm's length for the majority of the second period before DBU made a late run to make things interesting in the game's final minutes. A four-point play from Charles Allen, who finished the night with 10 points, cut the lead down to just six with less than five minutes to play.
 
Made buckets from Walker and Macauley kept the Patriots away, but Perry made all four of his foul shots and a three-point bucket in the final 2:26 before Jordan Pratt's pair of foul shots cut the lead to 88-85 with less than 18 seconds to play. But Wooten and Macauley made four foul shots in those final seconds to close things out.
 
The Lions will return to action on Wednesday when they host Henderson State at The Field House. Tip time is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.