Lions WIn Second in a Row to Begin Season

A 23-4 spurt early in the contest led the Texas A&M University-Commerce men’s basketball team to a 67-58 win over Trinity (TX) in Austin, Texas on Monday afternoon. 

A&M-Commerce improves to 2-0 for the first time since the 2004-05 campaign with the win. After the early spurt, the Lions never looked back as three players scored in double figures. 

Senior Ronnie Morgan led the team for the second-straight game with 17 points. Junior Brian Singleton and sophomore Brad Hambrick, who had 14 and 11 points for A&M-Commerce in the contest, joined him in double figures. 

Nine players scored for the Lions including the first four career points for freshman Preston Whitley from Frisco. Redshirt freshman Esteban Arriola and freshman Andrew Davis also saw their first collegiate minutes.

The A&M-Commerce defense came up with 11 steals on 19 Trinity turnovers and held the Tigers to just 37.3% shooting from the field.

Trinity (0-2) got a game-high 20 points from Michael Tobolowsky and Luke Caldaterera had a double double with 17 points and a game-high 13 rebounds for the Tigers. 

After the Lions built an early double-digit lead, Trinity managed clawed back to get within single digits in the final minutes of the first half and again late in the contest. The closest Trinity could get would be seven in the final seconds of the game. 

The next contest for A&M-Commerce is a trip to San Antonio to face St. Mary’s on Friday, November 27th at 7:30 pm. The Rattlers began its 2009-10 season with a 74-65 win over St. Thomas (TX) on Sunday.