After a tightly contested back-and-forth contest, the A&M-Commerce women’s basketball team pulled away in the final nine minutes in the Field House, beating McMurry 68-60 and surpassing last year’s win total by moving to eight wins.
Kiana Evans scored a season-high 16 points and matched her season-high in rebounds with nine in what was arguably her best game as a Lion. Evans managed to find scoring with supreme efficiency, going 5 of 7 from the floor and 6 of 7 from the stripe.
After trailing to the Warhawks 33-30 at halftime, junior guard Gabby Scott erupted for eight of the Lions first ten points of the second half on two threes and a jumper. Scott finished the day with 17 points, a season-high. Freshman Princess Davis contributed in several phases, chipping in seven points, six rebounds, and matching a career-high eight assists.
“Gabby and Kiana really stepped up and played the way they are capable of playing today,” said coach Jason Burton, “The more they continue to get comfortable with the team and our system, the better these two will be.”
As a team, the Lions found success from deep, outshooting the Warhawks by 15 percent (8 of 20 vs. 3 of 12). A&M-Commerce also got reliable production out of its bench with a 19-4 bench-scoring discrepancy, while also outreboundingMcMurry 37-29.
McMurry’s top threats in the game were forwards Taylor Russell and AdijatuDisu, who scored 20 and 17 points respectively. Russell in particular contributed six boards and shot well, going 7 of 9 from the field and 5 of 6 from the line. The Warhawks’ top rebounder was Mishae Roper with eight. Roper also stepped up with six points and two steals.
With the loss, McMurry drops to 1-4 all-time against the Lions, and 2-16 on the disappointing season. They’ll have six days to regroup before traveling to Arlington Baptist to take on a Patriots team who the Lions previously defeated 104-73 this year.
The Lions meanwhile find themselves with an 8-6 overall record under first year head coach Jason Burton, a higher total of wins than they put up all of last season. With a minimum of 12 games remaining on the season, A&M-Commerce has a chance to extend that win-total out significantly.
“It’s nice to improve on last year, but our goals are bigger than that,” said Burton, “We want to finish towards the top of the LSC. So we’ll continue to take the season one game at a time. We will enjoy tonight and get prepared for Eastern (New Mexico) starting tomorrow.”
Next up, the Lions will finish off their home-stand this Wednesday, January 21 at 5:30 p.m. when LSC-rivals Eastern New Mexico (6-8 overall; 2-2 in LSC) come to town. After that, the Lions hit the road for a date with No. 11 ranked West Texas A&M (12-2 overall; 3-1 in LSC) in Canyon, Texas on Saturday, January 24.