TYLER, TEXAS – The University of Texas at Tyler men's basketball team will make the short trek to Commerce, Texas for a Tuesday night meeting with Texas A&M-Commerce.
 
The Patriots enter the midweek Lone Star Conference match up with a record of 10-3 on the year and 2-2 in Lone Star Conference play. UT Tyler defeated Eastern New Mexico by an 80-51 final tally on Thursday night and fell to #1 Lubbock Christian by a 74-69 final on Saturday afternoon.
 
Tuesday night's game is set for a 7:30 p.m. start.
 
LAST TIME OUT
 
The Patriots maintained their focus last week and picked up an 80-51 win over Eastern New Mexico in a game that precluded two highlighted match ups for UT Tyler against #1 Lubbock Christian and Tuesday night's road trip to Texas A&M-Commerce. Micah Fuller dropped a season high 21 points in that win over the Greyhounds, thanks to a 6-of-8 shooting performance from three-point range.
 
The Patriots knocked down 15-of-23 (52.2 percent) attempts from three-point range as a team, and limited Eastern New Mexico to less than ten made field goals in both the first and second half. The Greyhounds shot just 28.3 percent (17-of-60) from the field on the night against UT Tyler, the lowest percentage any team has posted against the Patriots this season.

UT Tyler then turned around and gave #1 Lubbock Christian all they could handle on Saturday afternoon, jumping out to a 38-32 halftime advantage before a cold shooting effort from the field in the second half ultimately ended the Patriots chance at the upset. Fuller once again posted a season high in scoring figures for the second outing in a row, making 11 free throws and five shots from the field to finish with 23 points.
 
Lubbock Christian eventually escaped with a 74-69 win, but UT Tyler proved once again that they have established themselves into a top contender in the LSC this season.
 
A LOOK AT THE NUMBERS
 
UT Tyler enters this week's games ranked third in the LSC in scoring offense (79.4 ppg) and fourth in the league in scoring defense (63.5 ppg). The Patriots lead the LSC in three point field goal percentage (40.3), and have connected on 104-of-258 attempts on the year.
 
Micah Fuller went for back-to-back season high scoring totals last week against Eastern New Mexico and Lubbock Christian, and now continues to lead the Patriots in scoring with an average of 13.8 points per contest. Fuller has scored 10 or more points in all but two games this season, and went a combined 12-for-22 from the field in his two efforts against Eastern New Mexico and Lubbock Christian.
 
The Patriots have averaged 71.3 points in games against Lone Star Conference competition, sixth best in the LSC against conference foes. The Patriots have held conference opposition to an average of 68.0 points per game in games marked as LSC contests, and have the second best field goal percentage as a team from three-point range (42.5 percent) in conference games.
 
CONFERENCE RACE
 
Lubbock Christian (4-0) and Texas A&M International (2-0) stand as the lone two remaining undefeated teams in LSC play in what is developing into a tightly-contested race from top to bottom in the Lone Star Conference standings. A string of postponements across the league has made it difficult to get a firm grasp as to where most teams stand, but it has been evident that the race for the 12 spots available in the LSC Postseason Tournament will be close.
 
UT Tyler currently sits as one of three teams with a winning percentage in league play right at .500, with six teams sitting ahead of that winning percentage thus far.
 
PATRIOTS IN THE RANKINGS
 
The Patriots stayed in the no. 6 spot in the latest edition of the D2SIDA South Central Region poll, and have appeared within the top 10 of the rankings in each of the last seven editions of the poll. UT Tyler rose to as high as no. 3 back on Dec. 13^th in the week five edition of the rankings.

Lubbock Christian and West Texas A&M both stayed put in the no. 1 and no. 2 spots respectively, while the Lone Star Conference occupied seven of the 10 available spots in the rankings for the second consecutive week.
 
SCOUTING AND HISTORY WITH THE LIONS
 
Texas A&M-Commerce sits one spot ahead of UT Tyler in the no. 5 spot of the D2SIDA South Central Regional Rankings, and sports an 11-3 record on the year. The Lions also split their most recent weekend with a 63-59 loss against Lubbock Christian last Thursday and then a dominating 92-60 win over Eastern New Mexico.
 
The Lions have won all four of the meetings between the two programs, however three of those four contests have been decided by four points or less.
 
Texas A&M-Commerce is 3-2 in LSC play and has four members that average double digits on the year. Alphonso Willis enters Tuesday as the leading scorer for the team with an average of 12.3 points per game, while Augustine Ene (11.9 ppg), Jairus Roberson (11.9 ppg) and Carson Tuttle (10.8 ppg) have all be consistent on the offensive side of the ball for the Lions.
 
Clashon Gaffney has been a force defensively for Texas A&M-Commerce, ands leads the LSC with 51 blocks on the year. The Lions lead all of Division II basketball with an average of 6.8 blocked shots per game, and have limited LSC foes to just a 39.6 percent field goal percentage, third best in the LSC.