KINGSVILLE – The Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team went to overtime for the fourth time in the last six games, ultimately defeating Texas A&M University-Kingsville in an 86-78 victory in the Steinke Center on Saturday afternoon.
A&M-Commerce is now 18-6 overall and 10-5 in the Lone Star Conference, while A&M-Kingsville falls to 11-13 overall and 4-10 in the league.
The Lions complete their five-game Lone Star Conference road trip at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Tarleton State.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- The Lions were led by 27 points from point guard Reggie Reid, who shot 61.5 percent from the floor and made nine free throws.
- Trey Conrod scored 18 points, including a key three-pointer in overtime.
- Willie Rooks scored 14 points and had four rebounds with four assists. Aaron Horne scored nine points in the first half and led the Lions with seven rebounds.
- The Lions shot 51.0 percent (25-of-49) from the floor, including 9-of-19 (47.4 percent) from three-point range. The Lions also made 27-of-32 free throws for an 84.4 percent rate.
- A&M-Commerce had a 35-24 edge in rebounds.
- The Lions shot 100 percent from the floor and from the charity stripe in the overtime period.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Lions scored the game's opening bucket before a five-point Javelina run. The Lions responded with a pair of Conrod free throws and a Horne corner triple to regain the lead at 7-5 with 17 minutes left in the half. The Lions would not relinquish the lead in the half, though the hosts remained within two possessions for just under 10 minutes before a big Lion run.
A&M-Commerce led 20-19 with eight minutes to play and scored 11 consecutive points, as the Javelinas went nearly seven minutes without scoring. The first six of those points came from the free throw stripe. Horne canned three-pointers on consecutive possessions and a Willford layup with 1:07 left in the period gave the Lions their largest lead of the period at 36-23. A&M-Kingsville scored the final five points of the frame and the Lions lead by eight at the break.
The Lions shot 47.8 percent (11-of-23) from the floor in the half and held an 18-12 rebounding edge. A&M-Commerce also went 9-of-10 at the charity stripe and made 5-of-10 three-pointers.
A&M-Commerce quickly pushed out to a 13-point edge with the first five points of the half as a Conrod three-point play and a Rooks jumper inside the opening minute made it a 41-28 game. The Javelinas scored the next eight points to cut the lead back down to six points and a later 6-0 run by A&M-Kingsville gave the hosts their first lead of the half at 46-45 with 12:49 to play.
The Javelinas led 48-47 with 11:28 to play before the Lions netted nine straight points, with Reid scoring seven of those to give the Lions a 57-48 advantage with 8:31 to go. A&M-Kingsville responded with its own nine-point run to tie the game back up at 57-all with 6:08 to play.
Both teams traded punches down the stretch, and a Conrod triple looked to give the Lions a needed edge, but one missed free throw for A&M-Commerce in the final 10 seconds nullified the advantage and a buzzer-beater from half court was no good, forcing the extra time.
Conrod opened the extra period with a three-pointer, but A&M-Kingsville scored four of the next six points to take a lead. Reid erased the home side's advantage with a three-point play to put the Lions up 77-75 with 2:38 to go in the OT period. Reid's triple from the corner with a minute remaining put the Lions up four points and Horne's steal on the other end forced the Javelinas to put the Lions on the free throw line to attempt to get back into the game. The Lions made all six free throw attempts down the stretch to seal the victory.