Men's basketball looks to secure standing in busy sports weekend

Men's and Women's Track

A full weekend of Texas A&M University-Commerce sports begins this weekend with the first track meet of the spring season. Both the men's and women's track teams will be taking part in the Early Bird Meet starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday. The meet is being hosted by A&M-Commerce and will be held at Memorial Stadium.

The field events will be held first, followed by the running events scheduled for 12:30 p.m. The meet is on a running schedule, meaning events will be held one after the other, in order, regardless of time.

Women's Basketball

Later on Saturday, the A&M-Commerce women's basketball team, who are 4-21 overall and 1-12 in the Lone Star Conference North Division, will play the first of two Lions basketball games against Cameron University. The ladies start at 2 p.m. and are looking for their first win in eleven games. The last win for the A&M-Commerce women was on Jan. 16, when they beat Cameron 84-78 at the A&M-Commerce Field House.

Women's head coach Nicole Anderson is hopeful the Cameron game will finally be the one that breaks her team's curse.

"I hope we can; I think we can," Anderson said. "I think, in due time, things will get to the point where we can win. We're playing better than we played all year right now. The one thing we are doing better is executing defensively."

In A&M-Commerce's last win against 8-18 (4-9) Cameron, junior Mattilyn McIntyre scored 30 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Sophomore Tiffany Mitchell got a double-double, scoring 15 points and getting 11 rebounds.

Juniors Luv Rattler and Josie Stewart were top performers for Cameron in that loss to A&M-Commerce, as they both had 21 points.

Men's Basketball

After the women's game, the 18-8 A&M-Commerce men will also finish their season out in a game against the Cameron Aggies. The men are guaranteed a spot in the LSC tournament, but head coach Sam Walker said his team is not taking the game lightly.

"We're not even talking about the conference tournament, we're talking about going to the national tournament," he said. "We have to win out. It's like playoffs have already started. We have to have a really good showing at, if not win, the conference tournament. It's not about being the third seed, the fourth seed, or the second seed. We need to win every game we play from here on out, and we need to have a playoff type of attitude stepping onto the floor."

The Lions sit third in the LSC North Division table with a 7-4 record, while Cameron is last and have yet to win a conference game this season. Even with the distance between these teams, Walker still does not want his players to get complacent.

"We control our own destiny, so we've got to keep winning games and keep a positive attitude in what we're doing," he said.

A&M-Commerce won their previous meeting with the Aggies 70-58 on Jan. 16. Sophomore Brad Hambrick scored a game high 18 points, just ahead of Cameron sophomore Milton Garner who scored 17 points. Senior Ronnie Morgan had 12 points for the Lions, while fellow senior Sammy Jackson and junior Brian Singleton scored 10 each.

Men's Golf

A&M-Commerce men's golf will wrap up the weekend when they start play in their first tournament on Sunday. The Lions are hosting the Pepsi Crawford/Wade Invitational in Pottsboro, Texas. The tournament runs through March 2.