After enduring a couple of nail-biters against West Texas A&M during the regular season, this time, the Lions decided to keep their claws neat. The Texas A&M University-Commerce men’s basketball team used a dominant first half to help power a 79-64 victory over the Buffaloes in the first round of the Lone Star Conference championship tournament on March 5 in Allen.
The Lions (22-7) advanced to the LSC semifinals and strengthened their chances for an NCAA national tournament bid with the victory, while the Buffaloes (17-12) are likely done for the season. A&M-Commerce will face Tarleton State (27-2) at 8:30 p.m. tonight at the Allen Events Center. The Lions, Buffs and Texans entered the conference tournament seeded fourth, fifth and first, respectively. Tarleton State defeated Eastern New Mexico (7-21) by an 80-50 margin in a first-round game on March 4.
Senior forward Darrell Williams scored 25 points and hauled down 25 rebounds to lead the Lions in both categories. The latter total set an LSC tournament record. Also, Williams became the first player to post at least 20 points and 20 rebounds in an LSC Championship game since 1980. Senior center Christian Macauley added eight rebounds.
“We had a really good game from our inside guys,” A&M-Commerce head coach Sam Walker said. “They were patient, played with some composure, they didn’t turn the ball over and they gave us a good opportunity to win.”
Tez Dumars finished his career with 25 points to lead the Buffaloes, who also got 13 from David Chavlovich.
The Lions jumped out to 22-4 advantage in the opening minutes and led 42-23 at halftime. WT mounted a late rally and got as close as 11 with 6:09 to go when Dumars hit his fifth 3-pointer, but that’s as close as the Buffs got.
"The West Texas seniors played like seniors should," Walker said. "So hats off to the them."
The Lions out-rebounded WT 47-34 and dominated inside with a 42-20 edge in the paint.
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