A&M-Commerce (14-6, 3-5 LSC) at Midwestern State (14-6, 6-2 LSC)
Saturday, February 8, 2014 • 6:00 p.m.
Ligon Coliseum (3,640) • Wichita Falls, Texas
Radio: KETR 88.9 FM • Live Stats • Twitter: @Lion_MBB • Game Notes (PDF)
FOR STARTERS
After an 89-79 win over Cameron, the Lions will go in search of their first consecutive wins of the conference season when they travel to Midwestern State on Saturday in Wichita Falls. The Mustangs pulled out a 84-73 win over the Lions in the league opener on Jan. 4 in Commerce.
THE LAST TIME OUT
• A&M-Commerce put together its most complete game of the conference slate on Wednesday, led by 19 points from Devondrick Walker for a 89-79 win over Cameron at The Field House. The Lions put five players in double figures and tied a season high with 12 three-pointers, leading by seven at the half and never trailing in the second period. The loss is the fifth in a row for the Aggies, who could not finish off the season sweep of the Lions after picking up a 69-66 win in Lawton earlier in the season. Walker's 19 points was tops on the team with the senior guard hitting for 14 points in the second half, including four of his five three-point tries. LaDon Carnegie hit four more triples and added 16 points and five rebounds, while Daniel Ehambe made it into double figures for the second straight game with 14 points off the bench.
UP NEXT
• The Lions return home on Wednesday to close out its season series with Angelo State at The Field House. A&M-Commerce overcame a 20-point ASU lead in the second half in the team's first meeting on Jan. 12 in San Angelo, just to see the Rams score in the final five seconds of the game to pull out hte two-point victory.
QUICK HITS
• The Lions were off to the races on Saturday vs Cameron, outscoring the Aggies 22-4 in fast-break points.
• Kameron Price had eight assists against the Aggies on Saturday, the most by a Lion this season and the most by an A&M-Commerce player since Tyrie Wooten had 10 vs Tarleton State last season.
• After averaging just 4.2 points in his first 16 games of the year, senior guard Daniel Ehambe has been a major contributor in the Lions' past two contests. Ehmabe has averaged 14.5 points in those games, tying a career high with 15 points in TAMUC's loss at Tarleton and follwing that up with 14 points in a win over Cameron. He is 9-for-12 from the field in those games, including 4-for-6 from beyond the three-point arc.
• 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. MSU: Midwestern State leads, 49-32
Last 5 Meetings
2013-14 MIDWESTERN STATE L 69-66
2012-13 vs Midwestern State L 69-63
2012-13 at Midwestern State L 65-51
2012-13 MIDWESTERN STATE L 76-69
2011-12 vs Midwestern State L 80-74
LAST MEETING
Despite
LaDon Carnegie's 18 points in his return from a two-game absence, the Lions could not overcome a hot-shooting Midwestern State bunch in the second half, falling 84-73 in the LSC opener at The Field House. The Lions, who were returning to action after a 17-day layoff through the Christmas break, put four players in double figures, with
Tyrie Wooten (15),
Devondrick Walker (11) and
Kameron Price (10) joining Carnegie; however, the Mustangs had plenty of firepower of their own, led by DeJuan Plummer's 21-point outburst off the bench, a performance that included hitting five three-point buckets.
SERIES NOTES
A&M-Commerce will be looking to snap a six-game losing skid in Wichita Falls, having not beaten the Mustangs on their home floor since the 2000-01 season. The Lions have won just twice in the last 16 meetings since the 2004-05 season.
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 82.7 per-game average. To date, that is the highest-scoring team head coach Sam Walker has ever had, currently surpassing his 2006-07 team who averaged 81.9 points per contest. The mark is also the most by any Lion team since 1996-97 when the Lions averaged 83.2 per game under former head coach Paul Peak.
RELYING ON CHARITY: The Lions are doing their fair share of getting to the foul line. In fact, their 73.2 percent mark at the line is only behind Tarleton's 73.5 percent among LSC teams, and their 568 attempts are just 16 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 at least 11 points in six of the Lions' eight games, averaging 14.5 points per game in league contests. He is also currently 37 of 39 (94.9) from the foul stripe this year, but needs to average 2.5 attempts per game to qualify for league and national leaders. He is currently averaging just 1.8 attempts per game and needs to average four foul shots per game the rest of the season to reach the qualifying mark. Should he qualify and maintain his pace, his 94.9 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 9.5 points and 7.3 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 with 2.8 blocks per game after adding five more to his season total vs Cameron. He has at least one block in every game this season for the Lions, with multiple blocks in 16 of A&M-Commerce's 20 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 seven games remaining in the season, Macauley will have to average four blocks per game the rest of the way to surpass Johnson's all-time total.
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 (52.1), 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' loss at Eastern New Mexico was also A&M-Commerce's third straight defeat by five points or less. It is 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 219 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 549 victories.
CALLING LONG DISTANCE: The Lions have not been afraid to step out and let it fly from beyond the arc this season, launching 420 three-point tries, the second most in the LSC. Still, they have managed to be efficient with them too, hitting 36.9 percent from three-point range, a mark that also ranks second in the league. A&M-Commerce has made at least 10 threes in eight games this year with a season-high 12 in a six-point win over Southern Arkansas on November 13. In all, five Lions with at least 30 three-point tries are hitting better than 35 percent of those shots, led by LaDon Carnegie's league-leading 52.1 percent.
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 10 of its 20 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.
NOT CLEANING UP YOUR OWN MESS: The Lions won for just the second time this season when losing the battle on the glass, 35-34, in its win over Cameron. Of those 34 rebounds, the Lions only collected four offensive rebounds, thanks in large part to a 57.8 percent shooting night. The four offensive rebounds is the least by a Lion team in a single game since they had just three in a 77-72 loss at West Teaxas A&M on Jan. 4, 2012.
