The Texas A&M University-Commerce men’s basketball won their first two games of the season on Nov. 15 and 16 against St. Edward’s University and Trinity University. The wins gave A&M-Commerce their first 2-0 record since the 2004-2005 season.
“It feels good to be undefeated because we’ve had such great teams that have had slow starts in the past few years,” said head coach Tom Walker. “Learning while you’re winning is easier than learning while you’re losing.”
In the first game, the Lions beat St. Edward’s 73-60 on senior forward Ronnie Morgan’s 16 points and 10 rebounds. Senior forward Justin Wilkerson had 8 points and 9 rebounds, while junior guard Brian Singleton chipped in 10 points and led the team with 7 assists.
Morgan led A&M-Commerce in scoring again with 17 points against Trinity as the Lions held off a second-half charge by the Tigers to win 67-58. Singleton added 14 points and sophomore guard Brad Hambrick had 11 in the victory.
“I would say that Ronnie Morgan, Brad Hambrick, Cardell Hunter and Sammy Jackson are just about everything we expected returning starters to be, and Brian Singleton has been a pleasant surprise,” Walker said.
The first two games have proved that the Lions can get by just fine without having a single star player to carry the team.
“When you have a group of guys that can all score double-digits and play good defense I think that’s better than having one star,” Hambrick said.
This year’s team is built around the concept that winning is a team effort.
“We don’t have set plays, we run motions,” senior forward Sammy Jackson said. “So whoever gets it at the right time, it’s their turn to score.
The Lions travel down to San Antonio for their next tournament, where they will face St. Mary’s and Langston University on Nov. 27 and 28. The tournament will be the their first games since their win against Trinity on Nov. 16.
“The 11 day break is not healthy,” Walker said. “With all that practice time, you’d think you could get a lot better, but you can get into a rut. We’re trying to avoid that by having good, competitive practices every day.”
Walker isn’t upset about the amount of away games at the beginning of the schedule, however.
“It helps,” he said. “The amount of time you spend off of the court collectively confined in social settings benefits the team.”
Jackson agreed with his coach about the amount of early home games, but for other reasons.
“It really helps us out, because, at the end of the season, most of our games are away, so we’ll be used to playing away,” he said.
The Lions play their first home game on Dec. 8 against Henderson State University.