A&M-Commerce (15-8, 4-7 LSC) vs Eastern New Mexico (13-10, 6-5 LSC)
Wednesday, February 19, 2014 • 7:30 p.m. 
The Field House (5,000) • Commerce, Texas 
Radio: KETR 88.9 FM • Live Stats • Twitter: @Lion_MBB • Game Notes (PDF)

STORY LINES
• With the Lone Star Conference slate coming to a close, the A&M-Commerce Lions have three more chances to improve their seeding for the upcoming LSC Tournament, beginnign Wednesday with a home contest vs Eastern New Mexico at The Field House.

THE LAST TIME OUT
•  The Lions put five players in double figures and A&M-Commerce never trailed in the second half, picking up a 99-78 win over Angelo State on Saturday at The Field House. The win was the largest for the Lions over the Rams since the 1997-98 season and evens up the season series at 1-1 after ASU held on for a two-point win in San Angelo on Jan. 12. Devondrick Walker poured in 19 of his game-high 22 points in the opening period, hitting four threes and dishing out five assists without a turnover in 35 minutes of action. Christian Macauley just missed a double-double, finishing with a career-high 19 points to go with nine rebounds and a pair of blocked shots. The four threes from Walker was half of the Lions' total for the game as they hit eight of their 19 tries, but once again made hey at the foul line, connecting on 33 of their 39 free throws for the game, tying a season high as a team with the 33 makes.

UP NEXT
• The Lions close out the road portion of their schedule on Saturday at West Texas A&M before returning home for the regular-season finale one week later when they host league-leading and nationally-ranked Tarleton State in a game that will serve as Senior Day for the Lions' six-member senior class. 

QUICK HITS
• A&M-Commerce was 0-for-8 from 3-point range in the second half on Thursday in Kingsville, marking just the third half this season the Lions have not hit a triple. Two of those three occurrences happened in the second half of both games vs A&M-Kingsville. 

• Saturday's 99-78 win over Angelo State was the highest scoring output of LSC play this season, and the most points since a 105-75 win over Northwood on Dec. 11 in Commerce. The 21-point margin of victory was the biggest spread in a Lion win over the Rams since a 30-point win in 1997-98.

• A&M-Commerce is hitting 74.6 percent of its foul shots as a team in LSC play, leading the league in free throw percentage, free throws attempted (665) and free throws made (496). Better than 26 percent of the Lions' points this year have come from the free throw stripe, the highest in the LSC.

• The Lions got off to an 8-0 start to the season, the second best start to a season for A&M-Commerce in program history.

Series vs. ENMU: A&M-Commerce leads, 38-19
Last 5 Meetings
2013-14    at Eastern New Mexico        L    83-78
2012-13    at Eastern New Mexico        L    84-77
2012-13    EASTERN NEW MEXICO    W   84-77
2011-12    at Eastern New Mexico        W   67-62 (OT)
2011-12    EASTERN NEW MEXICO    W   88-77                        

LAST MEETING
Devondrick Walker set career highs in points and made three-pointers, but a late Eastern New Mexico run was just too much to overcome as the Greyhounds handed the Lions their third straight narrow road loss, 83-78, in LSC play at Greyhound Arena. Walker finished with 27 points and six threes, and the Lions led 67-63 with just 5:45 to play; however, the Greyhounds went on a quick 10-0 run in 2:08 to regain a lead that they never relinquished. The win marked the first time they had won consecutive games against the Lions since a run of four in a row from the 2002 to 2004 seasons.
 
SERIES NOTES
The Lions own the all-time series against the Greyhounds, but will need a win on Wednesday to avoid its first three-game losing streak to ENMU since dropping three in a row from 2002-04. The Greyhounds have dropped their last five trips to The Field House, not winning in Commerce since a 55-52 victory in the 2003-04 season.

NEARING TOURNEY TIME: With just three games remaining in the regular season, the Lions can begin to set their sights on Allen and the Lone Star Conference Tournament. At 4-7 in the LSC, the Lions are tied with Cameron for fifth place in the league, but if the tournament began today they would open up as the No. 6 seed due to tie-break scenarios. Still, the potential remains for the Lions to jump as high as the No. 3 seed, while one more win would secure no lower than the No. 7 seed in Allen. 

SCORING WITH THE BEST: Points have not been hard to come by this season for the Lions, ranking second in the Lone Star Conference with an 81.7 per-game average. To date, that is the second highest-scoring team head coach Sam Walker has ever had, just behind his 2006-07 team who averaged 81.9 points per contest. 

RELYING ON CHARITY: The Lions are doing their fair share of getting to the foul line. In fact, their 72.9 percent mark at the line is only behind Tarleton's 73.3 percent among LSC teams, and their 595 attempts are just 19 less than the Texans. Coach Sam Walker has had four previous teams in his tenure go over the 70-percent mark as a team from the line, with none higher than the 2006-07 squad's 73.9 percent. The school record for free-throw percentage in a season is 75.9 in 1966-67.

DEVONDRICK NEARING ELITE COMPANY: Devondrick Walker has stepped up his game in LSC play in his senior season, hitting for double figures in 13 of the Lions' last 16 games, and is averaging 15.4 points per game in league contests, good for sixth in the LSC. He is also currently 54 of 47 (94.7)  from the foul stripe this year, but needs to average 2.5 makes per game to qualify for league and national leaders. He is currently averaging just 2.34 makes per game, but if he qualifies nationally and maintain his pace, his 94.7 percentage would be good enough to be the national leader and break Mike Micarelli's single-season free throw percentage mark at A&M-Commerce of 93.5 percent set in 1983-84.

WALL OF MACAULEY: In addition to his 9.9 points and 7.5 rebounds per game, A&M-Commerce big man Christian Macauley has been stellar as the Lions' last line of defense. The junior from Washington D.C. leads the Lone Star Conference  and ranks seventh nationally with 2.8 blocks per game after rejecting nine shots in his last two games vs Cameron and Midwestern State. He has at least one block in every game this season for the Lions, with multiple blocks in 19 of A&M-Commerce's 23 games to date. Lee Johnson holds the single-season school record with 84 blocks (2.8 bpg), set in 1978-79. With a minimum of four games remaining in the season, Macauley will have to average 4.8 blocks per game the rest of the way to tie Johnson's all-time total. His 2.8 blocks per game currently ranks 7th nationally. 

HOW TO GET TO CARNEGIE HALL: Junior swing man LaDon Carnegie has battled injuries throughout the middle part of the season, but when he's been in, he's been as dynamic of a scorer as the Lions have. He's done much of his damage by being the most efficient three-point shooters in the LSC. Carnegie currently leads the LSC in three-point percentage (52.7), and is on pace to break the single-season mark at A&M-Commerce in three-point percentage currently held by Bennette Fields at 45.7 percent in the 1987-88 season. Fields' 87-88 season is the last time the Lions had a 45-percent three-point shooter with at least 50 attempts.  

CLOSE, BUT NOT CLOSE ENOUGH: The Lions' last  loss at Eastern New Mexico was A&M-Commerce's third straight defeat by five points or less. It was the first time since the 1969-70 season that the Lions have dropped three straight LSC games by five or less points, and only the fourth time overall in that span.

WALKER ADDS TO WIN TOTAL: Head coach Sam Walker became the all-time winningest coach in A&M-Commerce history last season with his 202nd victory, pushing him past former Lion head coach Jim Grudger, and in two less seasons. He now continues to distance himself from the other 19 coaches in Lion history with 221 victories to his credit. His win total is second among current coaches in the Lone Star Conference, trailing only Tarleton State's Lonn Reisman's 552 victories.

HEY DRE' DRE': Freshman De'Andre Carson received just his second start of the LSC season on Saturday vs ASU, his first since January 12, an made it count. Carson dropped in 14 points, just three short of his season high of 17 set in the second game of the season. He was 8-for-10 from the foul line and 3-for-6 from the field vs the Rams, reaching double figures in points for the first time since scoring 13 in a road win over Henderson State on Nov. 30 in Arkadelphia. 

DOWN, BUT NOT OUT: Halftime deficits have not been much of an issue for A&M-Commerce this season. The Lions have found themselves down at the break of 11 of its 23 games, coming back to win in five of those games. It's largest deficit over come of the season was a 15-point margin in its 71-68 win over Henderson State.