SAN ANGELO – The Angelo State men's basketball team returns to action at 4 p.m. on Saturday at Texas A&M-Commerce for its fourth Lone Star Conference game of the season and its fourth road game.

The Rams (3-4, 1-2 LSC) are coming off a 57-52 win over Tarleton State on Wednesday at the Junell Center and enter Saturday's game looking for their first win of the season away from San Angelo. A&M-Commerce (6-2, 1-0 LSC) leads the conference with a 77.9 points per game average and is coming off a 90-88 win over Abilene Christian at the Moody Coliseum on the ACU campus in its first conference game of the season.

“Commerce is a very deep team that plays a lot of athletic guys throughout games,” ASU head coach Fred Rike said. “They have four guys shooting over 40 percent from the three and they are leading the league in scoring and are coming off a big road win. They're a very good team this season.

“We'll have to play better offensively than we have been playing. We are struggling in the first 10 minutes of games and we have to change that.”

Jovan Austin and Antonio Dye are leading the Rams in scoring in the first three conference games of the season. Austin, a freshman from Grand Prairie, is scoring 16.7 points per game and also tops the team with 14 assists and five steal in conference play. He is averaging 13.4 points overall and has made 17 of his 19 free-throw attempts the past three games. Dye, the Rams' lone senior, is averaging 16 points in LSC play and 13 points through the first seven games of the season. Austin scored 19 points in the win over TSU with Dye adding 16.

Chris Talkington leads the Rams overall with 14.2 points per game and has scored 10 points per LSC game. The junior is 6-for-10 from beyond the arch in conference games, while Dakota Rawls leads the team with 6.3 rebounds per game in LSC play. Rawls also has added 7.9 points per game this season with Bryan Hammond averaging 6.4 points and has 16 assists through seven games as a Ram.  

ASU, which leads the conference at 69 percent from the free-throw line, enters the game following a confidence-building win over the Texans who were picked to win the conference. The Rams still had troubles on the offensive side of the court and were limited to 34 percent shooting in the game, but they also forced 19 turnovers along with limiting the Texans to 25 percent shooting from behind the three-point line.

“It's very important for us to play solid defense,” Rike said. “We've had too many games this season where we gave up too many points in the paint and we did a lot better job of not giving up easy points against Tarleton State. You can't give up easy baskets and expect to win.”

Preston Whitely, a senior from Frisco, leads the Lions in scoring this season with 13.2 points per game and is 13th overall in the conference. Whitely is also averaging seven rebounds a game, while Andrew Davis (11.8), Stefon Carson (10.8), and Devondrick Walker (10.3) make up double-figure scorers this season for A&M-Commerce. Tyrie Wooten and Jason Smith add to the team's depth with 9.8 and 9.3 points per game, respectively.  

The Lions are shooting 48 percent from the field this season, including 37 percent on 3-pointers. Carson, Walker and Wooten are each shooting over 40 percent on 25 or more three-point attempts this season.

ASU and A&M-Commerce come into the game with a 41-41 record in the overall series with the two teams splitting the season series last year. The Rams took a 20-point win at the Junell Center before dropping a five-point decision in Commerce in the final game of the 2011-12 season.

“We are still a young team and I still don't think they all understand the makeup of the LSC yet,” Rike said. “They'll start understanding really soon that road wins in our conference are really hard to get. We really need to get a road win.”

ASU will go outside of LSC play following the game at Commerce with non-conference road games against Lubbock Christian (Dec. 17) and UTPB (Dec. 19). The Rams next home game is on Jan. 5, 2013 against Midwestern State.