A&M-Commerce (16-8, 5-7 LSC) at West Texas A&M (10-14, 2-10 LSC)
Saturday, February 22, 2014 • 4:00 p.m. 
First United Bank Center (5,000) • Canyon, Texas 
Radio: KETR 88.9 FM • Live Stats • Twitter: @Lion_MBB • Game Notes (PDF)

STORY LINES
• The Lions close out the road portion of the season on Saturday when they travel to West Texas A&M, looking to sweep the Buffaloes in a season series for the first time since the 2004-05 campaign.

• A&M-Commerce enters the weekend just one game out of a tie for third place in the Lone Star Conference.

THE LAST TIME OUT
• The A&M-Commerce Lions overcame a sluggish start and never trailed in the second half, evening the season series with Eastern New Mexico with a 78-71 win over the Greyhounds Wednesday at The Field House. The Lions picked up consecutive wins in conference play for the first time this season, and head into the regular season's final two games just a game back of third place in the LSC. Devondrick Walker led the Lions in scoring for the fourth time in the last five games with 20 points and was tied with Kameron Price with a game-high four assists. De'Andre Carson found his way into double figures for the second straight game, hitting a pair of threes and 7-for-8 from the foul line for 15 points, and LaDon Carnegie added a dozen.

UP NEXT
• A date with league-leading and nationally-ranked Tarleton State awaits the Lions on March 1 at The Field House when A&M-Commerce hosts the regular-season finale for both teams. The game will also serve as Senior Night for the Lions' six-member senior class. 

QUICK HITS
• Road games have not been kind to the Lions in conference play this season, with them entering the weekend 0-6 in LSC games away from The Field House this year. Going back to the 2012-13 season, the Lions have dropped eight LSC games away from home.

• A&M-Commerce is hitting 75.0 percent of its foul shots as a team in LSC play, leading the league in free throw percentage, free throws attempted (696) and free throws made (522). Better than 26 percent of the Lions' points this year have come from the free throw stripe, the highest in the LSC.

• Senior guard Devondrick Walker had just two 20-point games in 56 games prior to this season. He went for 20 points in Wednesday's win over Eastern New Mexico, giving him a team-leading fourth time to surpass the 20-point mark in a single game this season. 

• 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. WT: West Texas A&M leads, 49-29
Last 5 Meetings
2013-14    WEST TEXAS A&M        W    93-84
2012-13    WEST TEXAS A&M         L    54-39
2012-13    at West Texas A&M         L    67-53
2011-12    WEST TEXAS A&M         L    70-60
2011-12    at West Texas A&M         L    77-72                        

LAST MEETING
LaDon Carnegie put in 23 points and the A&M-Commerce Lions snapped a three-game losing streak with a 93-84 win over West Texas A&M at The Field House. The win also snapped a six-game losing streak for the Lions in the series with the Buffaloes. Carnegie finished with 23 points on 7-for-10 shooting from the field, hitting all four three-point tries and five of six free throw attempts. He also added seven rebounds and five assists. A&M-Commerce put together its second straight strong offensive performance, hitting 55.8 percent from the floor, its second-highest field goal percentage of the season.
 
SERIES NOTES
West Texas A&M holds a commanding lead in the all-time series vs the Lions, but it was A&M-Commerce getting the better of them the last time out to snap a six-game losing skid in the series. Still, A&M-Commerce has not swept the season series from WT since the 2004-05 season and has only won multiple games from the Buffs in the same season twice since the 1996-97 season.

NEARING TOURNEY TIME: With just two games remaining in the regular season, the Lions can begin to set their sights on Allen and the Lone Star Conference Tournament. At 5-7 in the LSC, the Lions are tied with Cameron for fifth place in the league, just one game out of the third place slot occupied by Angelo State and Eastern New Mexico; but, if the tournament began today they would open up as the No. 6 seed due to tie-break scenarios. 

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 82.1 per-game average. To date, that is the highest-scoring team head coach Sam Walker has ever had, just behind his 2006-07 team who averaged 81.9 points per contest. The mark is also the highest by any Lion team since 1996-97 when the Lions averaged 83.2 points per game under former head coach Paul Peak.

DEVONDRICK NEARING ELITE COMPANY: Devondrick Walker has stepped up his game in LSC play in his senior season, hitting for double figures in 14 of the Lions' last 17 games, and is averaging 15.8 points per game in league contests, good for sixth in the LSC. He is also currently 58 of 63 (92.1)  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 2.41 makes per game, but if he qualifies nationally and maintain his pace, his 92.1 percentage would be good enough to be among the national leaders. Mike Micarelli currently holds the 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 9.8 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 24 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 three games remaining in the season, Macauley will have to average 6.0 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 (52.5), 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 222 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 553 victories.

HEY DRE' DRE': Freshman De'Andre Carson received consecutive starts in the last two games, just his second and third starts of the LSC season, and has made them count. Carson dropped in 14 points, on Saturday and followed that up with a 15-point outing vs ENMU. He's done most of his scoring at the foul line, hitting 15-for-18 from the stripe 

BOARDING UP: In addition to Christian Macauley's exploits blocking shots, the sophomore from Washington D.C. is also doing his fair share on the glass. Currently he ranks third in the Lone Star Conference with 7.6 rebounds per game, and is seeking to become the first Lion to average 7.5 boards per game since Rashad Brown averaged 7.5 in the 2008-09 season. His 7.6 boards per game are is the highest average since Thaddeus Daggett averaged 7.6 per game in the 2002-03 season.