Lions split weekend games

Texas A&M University-Commerce's basketball teams had a split Valentine's weekend. The men's team won their second straight game, beating Southeastern Oklahoma State University 81-71, but the women could not maintain their flying start against the Savage storm and fell to an 85-75 loss.

A&M-Commerce started the game well, and an early 13-0 run helped set them up with a 46-37 halftime lead. The Lions' high tempo defense forced the visitors to concede 19 turnovers, and junior Mattilyn McIntyre drew the plaudits once again, scoring 26 points and going 10-17 from the floor. Senior Ashley Murphy was also in good form, scoring 18 points and grabbing 7 rebounds for the Lions.

The Savage Storm came out of the break as the better team, and 15-5 run gave them the lead midway through the second half. Sophomore Elizabeth Dean was a major part of the comeback, and ended the game with a double-double, 16 points and 11 rebounds. The leader for SOSU was senior Destiny Brown, who finished with 17 points and 6 rebounds.

Despite their efforts, A&M-Commerce could not take back the advantage, fell to their eighth consecutive loss in Lone Star Conference North Division play, and now sit bottom of the table with a 1-9 record.

"I think there's been several games where we played one half of our style of basketball, and tonight was another indication of that," A&M-Commerce head coach Nicole Anderson said. "We had some break downs defensively in the second half, and no matter what it was a nineteen point turn around. We were up nine, and we lose by ten, that's 19 points we gave away."

Top scorer McIntyre had a little extra support from fans during this game. Members of the women's basketball team from McIntyre's high school Texarkana Liberty Eylau were in town for a game to be played in the A&M-Commerce Field House later that evening.

"I love seeing my people from back home, and it just gave me more energy and a boost to help out and play harder," she said. "They helped me on both ends of the court."

The men's game was quite the opposite, as it was SOSU who came out firing first. The visitors powered into the lead early thanks to a 15-2 run within the first six minutes of the game.

A&M-Commerce forced their way back into it, however, with a 15-4 run of their own. A Cardell Hunter jump shot finally gave the Lions a lead with 2:40 to go in the first half, and they lead 37-31 going into halftime. SOSU sophomore Mychal Horn was the team's top scorer with 20 points, and many of those came from beyond the three-point arc.

The Savage Storm scored seven unanswered points at the beginning of the second half to take the lead once again, but a 14-2 run by A&M-Commerce firmly put the game away. Junior Brian Singleton and sophomore Brad Hambrick finished the game with 20 and 18 points, respectively. Their outside shooting proved to be a big factor in the Lions' win, as Hambrick went 4-6 from beyond the arc, while Singleton made 3-6.

This is the second win in a row for the A&M-Commerce men after suffering a three game losing streak, and Hambrick said he feels those losses are firmly behind the team now.

"We just needed a couple of games where we played good," he said. "We felt like the games we lost we didn't necessarily play bad, but we just didn't do enough to win. "I think we're peaking just at the right time. This is where you want to peak at, toward the end of conference."

A&M-Commerce men's basketball head coach Sam Walker was satisfied with the way his team played.

"I just thought overall, our effort level was on a really high level and that was the difference in the game," he said.

Walker continued on to talk about the LSC post-season. The Lions are currently in third place in the LSC North Division table with a 6-3 record, and are guaranteed to finish in an LSC tournament place.

"We really want to win the conference tournament," Walker said. "I think when you start looking at games and see how we played against Angelo [State], how well we competed against some of the top teams in the South, how well we competed against some of the top teams in the North, it's not crazy to say if we're hot, we can go win that tournament. The only thing that's important is not who we play, but what type of basketball we are playing when the tournament starts."