Cardell Hunter Tip-In With :09 Left Leads A&M-Commerce Past Southwestern Oklahoma State, 70-69

A put back with nine seconds by senior Cardell Hunter lifted host Texas A&M University-Commerce past Southwestern Oklahoma State, 70-69, on Wednesday night at the A&M-Commerce Field House.

The Lions (13-8, 4-2 LSC North) trailed for the entire contest until the decisive put back by Hunter on a missed 3 pointer by DeUndrae Spraggins. "On the game-winning possession, they were overplaying us," recalled Hunter "I passed the ball to Brad Hambrick, who then passed to DeUndrae. When he shot the ball, the defender tipped it and I saw it was going to be short and I tipped it in."

Hunter scored 10 points as he was joined in double figures by four others including Spraggins with 17 and Sammy Jackson with 11. Off the bench, Rashad Brown and Brad Hambrick added 14 and 12 points, respectively.

Southwestern Oklahoma State (13-8, 4-2 LSC North) got a game-high 27 from Kenneth White, who hit six 3 pointers and Clarke Hale added 19, who was 5-for-5 from beyond the 3-point line.

A&M-Commerce started the second half on a 17-6 run, culminating with a lay up by Brown that brought the Lions within one, 46-45, with 12:09 to go in the contest. The game remained single digits for the rest of the contest. Not until the 4:51 mark on a jumper by Spraggins was A&M-Commerce able to get it back to a one-point deficit. For SWOSU, White answered the threat on back-to-back occasions including a layup with 4:23 to go and a 3 pointer with 3:58 that put the visiting Bulldogs in front, 66-62.

Trailing 68-64, Brown tipped in his own missed shot with 2:26 to go to cut the deficit to two, 68-66 and energizing the 455 fans at the A&M-Commerce Field House. After SWOSU managed to make 1-of-2 free throws, it was a clutch steal and lay up by Spraggins reduced the deficit to one, 69-68, for the fourth time in the game. On the next possession by SWOSU, Abdullah Lawal was called for charging and his fifth foul. Next, Spraggins missed a 3 pointer with 13 seconds to go but it was the put back by Hunter that proved to be the difference in the contest.

The two teams will face one another again on Saturday at 4 pm in Weatherford, Oklahoma.