TAMUC – Sports

Trey Conrod named Lone Star Conference Offensive Player of the Week.

RICHARDSON– The Lone Star Conference Offensive Player of the Week, named Texas A&M University-Commerce forward Trey Conrod as announced by the conference office on Monday. It is the first Offensive Player of the Week honor of his A&M-Commerce career.

Conrod – a junior from Kilgore – was a perfect 9-for-9 from the field against Tarleton State in the No. 12 Lions’ 82-70 win on Tuesday. He buried both of his three-point attempts and was also perfect from the free throw line, scoring 22 points to lead the team. He was also active on the defensive end, nabbing two steals and a block. Conrod did it all in just 18 minutes on the floor for the Lions. He also had a plus-minus rating of plus-20, the best of any player in the game.

Conrod and the No. 12 Lions are set to hit the road for two LSC contests against nationally ranked opponents. A&M-Commerce will face No. 6 UT Permian Basin in Odessa on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. The Lions will then head to Canyon to play against No. 8 West Texas A&M. That game will begin Saturday at 4 p.m. and is part of the NCAA Division II Basketball Showcase, broadcast live on ESPN3. (Note: New national rankings will be released Tuesday.)

LONE STAR CONFERENCE MEN’S BASKETBALL PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

Offensive
Nov. 15 – Daeshon Francis, UT Permian Basin
Nov. 21 – David Chavlovich, West Texas A&M
Nov. 27 – Jordan Evans, West Texas A&M
Dec. 4 – Dorian Armstrong, A&M-Commerce
Dec. 11 – James McPherson, UT Permian Basin
Dec. 20 – Jordan Evans, West Texas A&M (2)
Jan. 8 – Daeshon Francis, UT Permian Basin (2)
Jan. 15 – Trey Conrod, A&M-Commerce

Defensive
Nov. 15 – Ryan Quaid, West Texas A&M
Nov. 21 – Gaige Prim, West Texas A&M
Nov. 27 – Deshawn Riddick, Tarleton State
Dec. 4 – Ryan Quaid, West Texas A&M (2)
Dec. 11 – Josh Hawley, Tarleton State
Dec. 20 – Ryan Quaid, West Texas A&M (3)
Jan. 8 – Dorian Armstrong, A&M-Commerce
Jan. 15 – Ryan Quaid, West Texas A&M (4)

 

Brianna Wise

Lions knock off TWU 80-73 to set a new program record for consecutive conference wins.

DENTON– The Texas A&M University-Commerce women’s basketball team defeated Texas Woman’s University 80-73 on Saturday. The Lions jumped out to a big lead in the first half and survived a late TWU run to get the win.

The win brings the Lions to 10-5 on the season and 7-1 in the Lone Star Conference. It is the sixth consecutive conference win for the first-place Lions, setting a program record. The Pioneers fall to 6-8 on the season and 3-5 in conference play.

The Lions will continue their three-game road trip by traveling to face UT Permian Basin on Thursday. The game will be at 5:30 p.m. at the UTPB Gymnasium in Odessa.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
– The win is the sixth straight conference win for the Lions, setting a new program record. The Lions are 7-1 in the Lone Star Conference, their best record through eight games in program history.
– Brianna Wise led all scorers with 27 points. She was a perfect 10-for-10 from the line in her eighth 20+ point game of the season. She also had nine rebounds.
– Artaejah Gay had 17 points, moving into a tie for 8th place all-time in scoring. She passed Lion great Kanani Marshal for ninth place on the all-time scoring list. Gay also pulled down seven rebounds.
– Princess Davis moved into fourth place all-time in assists after dishing out six assists. She also had 15 points.
– Jenna Price had 11 points and nine rebounds.
– The Lions had 22 offensive rebounds in the game.
– The Lions got to the free throw line 31 times and shot 84 percent from the line.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The teams battled back and forth early in the first quarter, with the sides splitting the first 14 points. The Lions then started to take control of the quarter. They scored eight unanswered, building a 15-7 lead. A&M-Commerce was active on the offensive glass in the first half, getting multiple second-chance shot opportunities. Price had four rebounds in the first quarter. Wise also had a good quarter, scoring eight points in the first period. After the Lions built their lead, the teams again started to trade buckets, with the Lions leading 22-13 at the end of the first quarter.

The Lions built their lead to double digits early in the second quarter, scoring the first six points of the quarter. Davis got inside multiple times for layups as the Lions built their lead to 32-15 just two minutes into the quarter. A three by Price then gave the Lions a 20-point advantage. TWU fought back, scoring five in a row to cut into the lead. The Pioneers ended the quarter on another 5-0 run. The Lions took a 40-29 lead into halftime.

Wise led all scorers with 15 points in the first half. She was 5-of-12 from the field and also added four offensive rebounds. Jenna Price had seven points and six rebounds, with three offensive rebounds. Artaejah Gay had six points while Princess Davis had four points and five assists. The Lions had 28 rebounds in the first half, 14 of which came on the offensive end.

TWU cut the Lion lead to seven points early in the third quarter before the Lions fought back in. Davis scored two jumpers in a row for A&M-Commerce as the lead was built again up to 13 points. Davis had 10 points in the quarter as the Lion lead was built back up to 15 points by the end of the period. A&M-Commerce held a 58-43 lead entering the fourth.

The Lions pushed their lead to 16 points early in the fourth quarter on a three from Gay. The Pioneers then started to chip away at the Lion lead. With 4:18 left, TWU had cut the Lion lead to 11 points. Both teams went scoreless for a two-minute stretch late in the quarter before the Pioneers caught fire late from the field. TWU also began to foul, and they limited the Lions to foul shots the rest of the way. With a pair of threes and a three-point play, the Pioneers cut the Lion lead to just four points late in the game. However, the Lions continued to hit their free throw shots and left with the win.

 

A&M-Commerce recognized as a finalist for Division II Award of Excellence for Lion Basketball Education Day.

INDIANAPOLIS – Texas A&M University-Commerce is one of 19 schools and two conferences who have been named finalists for the 2018 Division II Award of Excellence, an honor recognizing campus and community engagement efforts over the past year. The Lions were identified for the inaugural Lion Basketball Education Day, held on December 1, 2016.

Division II annually honors its members for leading events which exemplify any of the six Division II attributes: learning, balance, resourcefulness, sportsmanship, passion, and service. A committee of athletics administrators determined this year’s finalists and the Division II Student-Athlete Advisory Committee will select the winner, which will be announced during the Division II business session at the 2018 NCAA Convention on Jan. 20 in Indianapolis.

Each finalist will receive $500. The winner will receive $1,500 and a nationally televised football or basketball game during the 2018-19 season. The first runner-up will receive $1,250, and the second runner-up will receive $1,000. All prize money is intended for future community engagement activities.

The Lion women’s and men’s basketball programs welcomed students from area school districts to attend the basketball doubleheader, which tipped off at 11:00 a.m. on a Thursday.

While many schools offer local students the opportunity to attend an early tipoff and meet college basketball players, the members of the A&M-Commerce Student-Athlete Advisory Council saw the event as an opportunity to give the students more than just a basketball experience.

SAAC members noted the importance of education in their current situation as Division II student-athletes and wanted to encourage the students in attendance to not only stay in school but to also excel in the classroom to keep opportunities in front of them.

“We wanted to spread awareness about education and how important it is to stay in school, get good grades, and try to stay focused in the classroom,” said SAAC member and Lion football running back Ovie Urevbu.

SAAC members made two presentations during breaks in the game action. The first performance was about classroom focus.

“As we were doing our introductions, we would interrupt Ovie and Jaryn – the emcees – with different types of disruptive behavior that we as athletes know can go on in classrooms,” said SAAC member and Lion soccer defender Raven Porter. “Acting up in the class isn’t okay, and they know it’s not okay, but we wanted them to hold themselves and their classmates accountable for disruptive behavior and make good decisions.”

SAAC members also wanted to place an importance on reading. The presentation started off with examples of lower-level all the way up to some of the more significant books student-athletes use in their college coursework.

“We wanted to show the kids that the reading would get harder as they went along, but we also wanted to emphasize that there will be people along the way that can help you that, whether it’s teachers, tutors, or other classmates.”

CLICK HERE TO VIEW VIDEO OF THE PRESENTATIONS

Receiving invitations were school districts in the nearby communities of Commerce, Sulphur Springs, Community, Greenville, Royse City, Fate, western points of Rockwall, Cooper, Campbell, Cumby, Chisum, Paris, and North Lamar.

“Lion Basketball always welcomes the students of our local school districts to come to our games, and it made perfect sense to move our games to earlier in the day to allow a large number of them to attend,” said Lion women’s basketball coach Jason Burton. “The students created a huge home court advantage that helped our team come back from a halftime deficit.

“For our Student-Athlete Advisory Council to add an important educational element to the day made this a fantastic all-around experience and one that was not solely about a basketball game. It was a great day, and we are looking forward to Education Day in December 2017 and making this a continuing tradition for our program.”

“Education Day was an outstanding initiative by Texas A&M-Commerce to not only bring our students to campus for an athletic event, but also expose them to life lessons that they were able to bring back to our community and develop traits of responsible citizens,” said Dr. Roosevelt Nivens, superintendent of Community Independent School District. “We appreciated both the educational and athletic collaborations that formed out of this process. It continues to have a definitive impact on our students.”

“The Lion Student-Athlete Advisory Council truly enjoyed putting on the presentation for Education Day and helping put together a meaningful experience for the students in our local schools,” said Taryn Driver, A&M-Commerce SAAC President in 2016-17 and Division II National SAAC Vice President.

“Providing fun and informative program for the kids before they took their winter break was essential to us, and interacting with so many kids was one of the highlights of our year.

“Our SAAC is always striving to be involved in our communities and schools, and this event was an excellent start to what we hope is a yearly tradition for the kids in our area.”