OKLAHOMA CITY (Feb. 21, 2021) – Oklahoma Christian's young men's basketball team continues to learn, and even if those lessons are sometimes painful, coach Kendre Talley looks forward to the day when they will pay off.

OC hung with a solid Texas A&M-Commerce squad all afternoon Sunday and rallied from a 10-point second-half deficit to take the lead, but a few mistakes here and there by the Eagles proved costly and allowed TAMUC to escape the Eagles' Nest with an 80-78 win.

Down eight points with 26 seconds left and six points with 15.3 seconds left, the Eagles kept extending the game and weren't finished rallying until time expired just as Shem'mario Stephens unleashed a desperation shot that missed but could have won the game for OC (4-11, 4-11 Lone Star Conference).

The Eagles did a lot of things right against TAMUC (6-5, 6-5), shooting 53.1 percent (17 of 32) from the field after halftime. Freshman Marco Foster scored 23 points, hitting 7 of 12 from the field and 4 of 9 from 3-point range, while senior Anthony Johnson added 17 points and freshmen Nyk Madison and Elijah Elliott added 14 points and 11 points and five assists, respectively. Madison also had a highlight-reel block of a dunk attempt by the Lions' Demarcus Demonia, one of his three stuffs on the afternoon.

Both teams grabbed 36 rebounds and OC had only one more turnover (10) than did the Lions. Ultimately, the narrow difference in the game came at the free-throw line. TAMUC hit 17 of 22 attempts (77.3 percent) while OC was 15 of 25 (60 percent) – a two-point margin.

"That's probably the hardest we've fought in a game," Talley said. "We've got to focus on that. We were right there. You could look back at a couple of possessions that we could have made better decisions on, but that's part of growing. These guys are there now. It's the end of the season. It's really not an excuse and they know it.

"The good thing is they're maturing and seeing that we had chances. We've got to go back to practice and correct them."

In a seesaw first half, OC led 34-28 with 3:25 left but went more than 5½ minutes without scoring, allowing the Lions to score 15 straight points and eventually build a 48-38 lead on a 3-pointer by Augustine Ene.

The Eagles kept chipping away at that deficit, though, and went back ahead at 59-57 on a fast-break layup by Foster. The game was tied at 61-61 before J.J. Romer Rosario hit two 3-pointers in a 67-second span for the Lions, giving them a 68-63 lead with 2:58 left. It was an uphill battle for OC the rest of the way.

Ere, who hit all 10 of his free throws and finished with 21 points and nine rebounds, hit two from the line with 26 seconds left to put TAMUC up 77-69. Foster hit a 3-pointer with 19.4 seconds left before Elliott forced a quick turnover by Ene and drew a foul. Elliott missed both free throws before Demonia split a pair with 15.3 seconds left, making it 78-72.

Johnson hit a 3-pointer with 8.9 seconds left to pull OC within 78-75 and then forced a turnover by Alex Peavy with 7.5 seconds left but Madison turned it right back over on the ensuing inbounds play. Demonia made two more free throws with 4.9 seconds left before another 3-pointer by Foster made it 80-78 with 1.6 seconds left.

OC quickly fouled Leo Lara, who missed his first free throw unintentionally before intentionally missing his second one. Without a timeout, all the Eagles could muster was Stephens' heave.

Talley said his players "have the confidence that we can beat anybody and that's what we showed at the end. I just told them the way that we fought that second half is how we've got to start games. We've got to keep it consistent."

Romer Rosario scored 14 points for TAMUC while Carson Tuttle added 12 points and seven assists.

OC will host Arkansas-Fort Smith at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in a makeup game before hosting St. Mary's (Texas) on Friday and Saturday to wrap up the regular season.