Men's basketball continue solid start to season

The A&M-Commerce men's basketball team continued a solid start to the season by beating St. Edward's University 76-57 on Saturday, Nov. 20 at the A&M-Commerce Field House.

Senior Brian Singleton, who went 4-6 with 11 points, 4 assists and 3 steals on the night, made a couple of big shots to start off a 14-0 run.

"My hard work and dedication in practice, it has to reflect on how I play in a game, and since I'm a senior, I have to lead by example," Singleton said. "I have been putting in work since day one."

 St. Edward's freshman Matt Miner shot three for three from three-point range on the way to a team-leading 15 points. This is the first game this season the freshman has scored in double digits.

Junior Brad Hambrick shot 6-12 for 15 points to lead the Lions in the win.

"We like to make our opponent feel useless on the offensive end," he said. "Our main focus is to disrupt timing and make their offense uncomfortable."

Hambrick also said the Lions concentrate on defense because that is one aspect of the game they can completely control.

"We know on offense shots may not go in, but one thing that is a constant is we can play hard on defense," he said.

 Assistant Coach Jason Burton said it is still difficult at this stage of the season to maintain a high sense of urgency the entire game.

"It's tough to keep that level of expectation and intensity," he said. "We are going to get there where we can play 40 minutes of defense."

Hambrick made some big shots to help the lions pull off to a big lead.

"I thought he had a different perspective today," Burton said "He finally start looking off screens trying to found ways to score the ball."

Burton said the main objective for the team to work on this week is defense, and he thinks the players did a very good job executing it in the game.

"We played very good defense," he said. "That was the focal point all week."