TAMUC Basketball

 

 

Men’s basketball downs Arlington Baptist 108-72

COMMERCE– The Texas A&M University-Commerce, men’s basketball team, came away with a 108-72 win over Arlington Baptist College on Monday. The Lions led for all but one minute of the game.

The win brings the Lions to 13-3 on the season after the final non-conference game for the Lions in the regular season.

The Lions return to Lone Star Conference action on Thursday as they host UT-Permian Basin. The game will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Field House. The game will be preceded by the A&M-Commerce women’s team against UTPB.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
– Five Lions scored in double figures. All 10 Lions who got into the game had at least two points.
– Isaac Asrat led the Lions with a career-high 23 points, shooting 5-of-10 from deep. He also had five rebounds.
– Daquane Willford had a career-high 19 points and added six rebounds. Malik Albert had 14 points. De’Andre Carson had 10 points and three assists.
– Trey Seymore had his first double-double of the season with 10 points and a career-high ten assists.
– The Lions had 25 assists on 40 made baskets. They shot 57 percent from the field and 40 percent from behind the arc.
– The Lions scored 27 points off of 20 Patriot turnovers. The Lions scored 64 points off of the bench.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Patriots were the first team on the board, taking an early lead. A&M-Commerce took the lead for good with 17 minutes left in the first half. A pair of threes gave the Lions an early 10-6 lead and the first four Lion field goals were all from behind the arc.

The Lions began to build a lead with 14 minutes to play in the first half, earning their first double-digit lead at the 12:30 mark of the first half. The Lions built the lead to 15 midway through the half.

The Lions started to inflict their will after the midway point of the first half, tightening up defensively and getting more buckets in transition. With five minutes to play in half, the Lion lead grew to 20. The Lion defense held the Patriots without a field goal for the final four minutes of the half and took a 52-27 lead into halftime.

The Lions distributed the ball efficiently in the first half, as seven different Lions got on the scoreboard. The Lions assisted on 10 of their 16 made field goals.

Willford led all scorers with 13 points on 5-of-5 shooting in the first half. Albert chipped in 10 points and led the team with four assists and co-led the team with four rebounds. Little and Asrat had seven points and Carson and Seymore each added six for the Lions.

A&M-Commerce shot 55 percent from the field in the first half, including 50 percent from behind the arc. The Lions had nine fast break points and 26 bench points.

The Lions took their first 30-point lead early in the second half. Simon Shafack took an alley-oop from Seymore and slammed it home. Another slam from Marqueith Russell, a lay-in from Weston Zeller, and a basket by Chris Gatling meant all 10 Lions who got into the game scored.

The Lions built their lead to 37 points with 13 minutes to play, the largest lead of the match to that point. The Patriots started to match the Lions for a stretch, keeping the lead near 30 points for much of the remainder of the game.

The Patriots cut the lead under 30 with five minutes to play before back-to-back threes from Asrat brought the lead back up. The Lions went on a late run and pushed their lead to as many as 38.
Lions ranked third in South Central Region in this week’s D2SIDA Media Poll

COMMERCE – The Texas A&M University-Commerce, men’s basketball team, fell one spot to third in the South Central Regional poll in this week’s 2016-17 D2SIDA Men’s Basketball Division II Media Poll.

The Lions are currently 12-3 after completing a seven-game road swing. A&M-Commerce plays eight of its next ten games in the Field House, starting with Monday night’s non-conference game against Arlington Baptist.

A&M-Commerce received 42 points overall, narrowly behind the top two ranked teams in the region. The Lions face two other teams in this week’s top 10 in action this week. A&M-Commerce hosts the ninth-ranked UT Permian Basin on Thursday evening, followed by a key Lone Star Conference matchup with second-ranked West Texas A&M for College of Business Fill the Field House on Saturday afternoon.

This announcement is the eighth release of the rankings this season. The polls are calculated by the rankings of various media members, with a first-place vote worth 10 points. The South Central Region consists of the Lone Star, Rocky Mountain Athletic and Heartland conferences. The poll will be released weekly until the NCAA rankings begin.

The Lions are one of seven teams from the LSC in the rankings. Tarleton State is ranked first in the region, followed by West Texas A&M and A&M-Commerce. Midwestern State is fifth, Cameron is seventh, Angelo State is eighth, and UT Permian Basin is ninth.

2016-17 D2SIDA Men’s Basketball Media Poll
as of January 16, 2017

 

Rank	School (First Place Votes)	Record	Points	Prev.
1	Tarleton State (3)	15-2	48	1
2	West Texas A&M (2)	18-2	45	3
3	A&M-COMMERCE	12-3	42	2
4	Colorado Mines	14-3	32	6
5	Midwestern State (Texas)	12-4	29	7
6	Fort Lewis (Colo.)	15-3	28	8
7	Cameron (Okla.)	12-6	14	T-9
8	Angelo State (Texas)	10-4	12	4
9	UT Permian Basin	12-4	10	NR
10	Regis (Colo.)	12-4	7	5

 

Women’s basketball runs away with an 111-73 win over Arlington Baptist

COMMERCE– The Texas A&M University-Commerce women’s basketball team came away with an 111-73 win over Arlington Baptist College on Monday. The Lions only trailed for 10 seconds in the game and led by as many as 45.

The win brings the Lions to 11-5 on the season after their final non-conference game of the regular season.

The Lions return to Lone Star Conference action on Thursday as they host UT-Permian Basin. The game will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Field House. The A&M-Commerce men’s team and UTPB follows.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
– Five Lions finished in double figures. All 13 players scored in the game.
– Jasmyn Poe led the Lions with 15 points. She also had five rebounds and three steals.
– Artaejah Gay had 14 points on 7-of-9 shooting. She added seven rebounds.
– Brianna Wise had 12 points on 4-of-4 shooting from the field. Krystal Pickron also had 12 points and added three assists.
– Courtney Fields had 10 points. She also had two assists and three steals.
– Abreanna Harrison scored the first four points of her Lion career and had a team-high eight rebounds.
– The Lions shot 53 percent from the field and 39 percent from deep. The Lions scored 61 points off of the bench.
– The Lions had 61 rebounds in the game, including 21 offensive rebounds. They had 28 second-chance points.
– Jayzhia Softly had 36 points and 10 rebounds for the Patriots in 33 minutes. She shot 15-of-31 from the field.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Patriots were the first team on the board, taking their first and only lead on the first shot of the game. The Lions quickly responded and took the lead. Fields had an early layup and two free throws, scoring four of the first six points for A&M-Commerce.

The Lions were quick to jump the passing lanes and got multiple steals, turning them into fast-break points on the other end. Gay had three early buckets and Harrison got an offensive rebound and putback for the first basket of her career.

Riley was a distributor for the Lions early, tallying five assists in the first quarter alone. The Lions led by as many 11 in the first quarter and took a 33-24 lead into the second.

The Lions began to pull away early in the second quarter, as a three-point play from Wise fell, and the Lions began to pour it on. A pair of threes brought the Lion lead to 24 with six minutes to play in the half.

The Patriots continued to battle, keeping the lead hovering around 20 for the next five minutes before the Lions made a late run. Brittany Adams scored three consecutive buckets in her first extended action after returning from an injury. The Lions brought the lead to 30 in the second and took a 66-38 lead into halftime.

At halftime, Wise and Gay each had 10 points to lead the Lions. Gay also had five rebounds to lead the team. Pickron had nine points and two assists. Riley had eight points and a team-high six assists. The Lions shot 55.6 percent from the field in the first half.

The Lions held the Patriots to 36.6 percent shooting. Softly led all scorers with 17 points. She also had six rebounds.

The Lions continued to build their lead in the second half, pushing the lead to more than 40 points. They led 94-52 after three-quarters. Every Lion got on the board in the game.

The Patriots began to see the ball go through the basket with more regularity in the fourth quarter. They cut the lead to 40 points, but the Lions continued to score at will as well on the way to the emphatic win.

Khala Riley named LSC Offensive Player of the Week

RICHARDSON– Texas A&M University-Commerce’s Khala Riley has been named the Lone Star Conference women’s basketball Offensive Player of the Week, as announced by the conference office on Monday. It is the first time she has earned the honor this season.

Riley – a senior from Grand Prairie – had a career game against Tarleton State on Tuesday. She set career-highs in points (21) and assists (8). She shot 56 percent from the field and had two steals on the defensive end. Riley helped orchestrate an eight-point comeback that started in the third quarter and led the Lions on a 24-6 run in the fourth quarter.

Riley then had 19 points against Texas Women on Saturday. She got to the free throw line 11 times, knocking down nine and pulling down seven rebounds.

Riley is ninth in scoring and fifth in assists in the conference. She is averaging 13.3 points and 3.7 assists per game. She is also third in the conference in minutes per game, averaging 31.6 minutes a contest.

Riley and the Lions return to action on Monday as they take on Arlington Baptist at 5:30 p.m. at the Field House. A&M-Commerce will then return to LSC action as they host UT-Permian Basin on Thursday and West Texas A&M on Saturday for College of Business Fill the Field House.
—
Josh Manck
Director of Athletic Communications | Texas A&M University-Commerce
Committed to a “Best In Class” student-athlete experience.
Office: 903.886.5131 | Mobile: 817.487.5136 |
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 3011 | Commerce, TX 75429
Physical Address: 2600 Neal Street | Commerce, TX 75429

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