After having a week off for finals, the East Central University men's basketball team will have a busy week, with three games.  The Tigers will first travel to face Texas A&M-Commerce, Monday, Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. and then finish a five-game road trip with an exhibition game, Wednesday, Dec. 16 at UTSA at 11:30 a.m.  The final game of the week is the annual Field Trip Day, Friday, Dec. 18 vs. Southwestern Adventist at noon in the Kerr Activities Center.  Area fifth-grade students will be in attendance for the third-straight season.

Game Notes

The Broadcast
ECU's radio home for Tigers basketball in 2015-16 is Ada's KXFC, 105.5, FM 'The X-Factor'. Kenny Morrison returns to broadcast the games for his 19th season. Morrison, a 1987 ECU graduate, spent two seasons doing color prior to taking over the play-by-play duties during the 1997-98 season.  

The Coverage
Fans who can't be at the game can find links to live stats, live video (if available) and the KXFC radio broadcast on ECUTigers.com.  Go to the men's basketball schedule page. Fans can listen to the radio broadcast online or through the FREE KXFC App available in ITunes, Google Stores where apps are sold and www.kxfcradio.com.

Scouting Texas A&M-Commerce
The Lions are 5-2 overall and will be playing their fourth-straight game against a team from the Great American Conference when they welcome ECU.  TAMCU has earned two-consecutive wins over Harding (89-87 A/85-79 H) in the last week and will battle Ouachita Baptist, Saturday, Dec. 12 at home.

The Lions have a +9.7 scoring and +9.2 rebounding margin on the season.  TAMCU has strong shooting, with a .485 overall and .385 triple mark, while its opponents are making 40.2 percent of the overall shots and 35.9 percent of those beyond the arc.

The Lions have four players that are averaging double-digits in the scoring column, with all shooting over .430 from the floor.  Anthony Adams leads the group with 14.6 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.  Adams is shooting .451 overall and .412 from three-point range, while adding 26 assists and 10 steals.  Bryant Crowder contributes 14.4 points and 7.4 boards per game and is shooting .615 from the field.
 
The Series
Monday's meeting is the 19th in the series that is heavily in favor of the Lions at 3-15, including a 0-9 mark on the road.  However, the Tigers won the last meeting (Nov. 16, 2012).

Scouting UTSA
The Roadrunners are 1-8 overall this season and will face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Saturday before hosting the Tigers.  The lone win on the season has come against Southern Utah (82-79) on the road.

UTSA has a -20.7 scoring and -2.9 rebounding margin on the year.  They also trail their opponents with a .431 to .532 overall shooting percentage and a .324 to .432 mark beyond the arc.

The Roadrunners have two players in double-digits in the scoring column.  Ryan Bowie leads the team with 18.3 points and 7.0 boards per game, while shooting .469 overall and .426 in triples.  J.R. Harris adds 12.1 points and 2.3 rebounds per game.  The duo account for 52 percent of the teams triples taken and 62 percent of those made.

The Series
This will be the first meeting between the two teams and the third exhibition game of the year for the Tigers.

Scouting Southwestern Adventist
The Knights are 2-13 so far in 2015-16 after losing their last five games.  SWADU is part of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association.

The Knights are averaging 71.7 points and 24.3 rebounds per game.  They are shooting .419 from the floor and .321 from beyond the arc.

The Series
This is the third-straight season the teams have played each other, with ECU earning a 101-50 win in 2014-15 and a 122-62 win in 2013-14.

Thomas Repeats at Player of the Week
Senior Stirling Thomas was named the GAC Player of the Week for Dec. 7.  This was the second honor for Thomas this season, after earning the award in the first week of the season.

Thomas he averaged 30.0 points per game in wins against Henderson State and Ouachita. The Elgin, Okla., native made 12-of-18 shots, with four 3-pointers against the Reddies and followed up with 27 points against OBU, last season's GAC regular-season champion.

The win against Ouachita Baptist in Arkadelphia, Ark., was the first time since Feb. 22, 2014 that OBU had given up a win at home.  That streak includes a perfect 13-0 mark at home in 2014-15 and ended at 15 games.

Free Throw Frenzy
With the rule changes in the NCAA this season it was expected that free-throw attempts would go up, but the Tigers and Dallas Baptist went a little higher than expected with almost 100 attempted between them.  ECU went 35-of-47 from the charity stripe, while DBU was 40-of-50, for 97 attempts.  The Tigers' Stirling Thomas made the most of his trips to the line, going 15-of-16 and scoring almost half of his 36 points for the game.

Early Signing
ECU announced the addition of one player to the 2016-17 roster during the early signing period in Camron Talley.

Talley comes to the Tigers from Rockwall-Heath High School in Rockwall, Texas.  He has been a starter for the Hawks since his freshman season and averaged 15 points, five rebounds and five assists per game as a junior.

Talley has been a standout since his freshman season, earning all-district first team honors all three seasons and averaging 14 points and 12.9 points per game in sophomore and freshman seasons, respectively.

Starting Strong
ECU started the year by playing two back-to-back exhibition games at Oklahoma State and UTEP.  While, the Tigers fell in both meetings, they kept the score close for most of the games and only fell by 12 at UTEP.

Stirling Thomas led ECU in the two exhibitions with 12.5 points per game, while adding 3.5 boards.  Transfer Brett Cannon added 9.0 points per game, while freshman Ben Brown-White led the team with 8.5 rebounds per game.

Up Next
After the game, Friday, Dec. 18, the Tigers will be off for the holiday break and will next battle Missouri-St. Louis, Saturday, Jan. 2 at the Kerr Activities Center.