ALLEN, TEXAS – A&M-Commerce women's basketball (14-14) played Midwestern State harder than they've done so all season on Friday, but the No. 2 seeded team in the tournament proved too resilient to fall as the Lions season ended in a 65-60 loss.
 
For the second game in a row, a freshman took the helm as the Lions' most impactful player. Forward Artaejah Gay dropped in 19 points on 7 of 15 shooting and 4 of 4 from the free throw line, adding eight rebounds and a block. Princess Davis, coming off last night's 23 point, 9 assist performance, once again put up solid numbers as well, rattling in 13 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals. Over the last two games, Davis played 79 of a possible 80 minutes.
 
"The last two games, those two have shown the level of play they're capable of playing," said head coach Jason Burton, "The future is bright."
 The Lions started the game by taking an early lead, which they wouldn't relinquish for several minutes. Action settled into a back and forth pace through the majority of the half, but in the final five minutes of the half, the lid was placed on the basket, and the Lions failed to score for the remainder of the period. The Lions committed an uncomfortable number of turnovers, and several A&M-Commerce players had to make early exits due to foul trouble, including Princess Davis, Kiana Evans and Abigail Leaupepe-Tele. Midwestern State was thus able to head to the locker room with a 27-20 lead.
 
In the second, the Lions hung around, with the deficit floating between five and twelve points for most of the half. With 2:21 to go in the game, Gay nailed a layup to bring the Lions within three. Yet that's as close as the Lions would come, and with the intentional fouling strategy not panning out, the ball game was over, and by extension, the Lions' season.
 
"They battled right to the end," said Burton, "I'm proud of this team, they've overcome so much. To play Midwestern like that, with no Ashlee Johnson, our senior leader…it was impressive. I love this team. I'd go to battle with this team any day."
 
La'Tisha Hearne ended her collegiate career with one of the solid defensive days that she's known for, grabbing eight rebounds, five points, and drawing several charges. She finshes sixth on the A&M-Commerce all-time rebounding list, having pulled down 610 rebounds. Fellow senior Abigail Leaupepe-Tele gave the Lions a yeoman's effort with eight points and four rebounds in only 11 minutes of play. The forward went down fighting to the end, as Leaupepe-Tele fouled out in the waning minutes. Ashlee Johnson finished her career on the bench, unable to play due to an upper-body injury. The senior guard instead served as a player-coach on Jason Burton's staff for the duration of the LSC Tournament.
 
Gabby Scott rounded things out for the Lions with an eight point, seven-rebound game, logging heavy usage with 38 minutes played.
 
Three Mustangs reached double-digit scoring, led by Dianna Jones' 18 points. Andrea Carter logged a 14-11 double-double, and Janae McJunkins came off the bench to score 14 points. Shambreka Jones proved adept at gathering rare stats, pulling in three blocks and two steals. As a team, the Mustangs won the turnover battle (9 vs. 22), and had more blocks (7) and steals (9) than the Lions (2 and 3). The Lions conversely proved why they were the top-rebounding team this season by winning the rebounding battle 52-38.
 
"You look at the stat sheet, and the one big thing that we didn't win was the turnover battle," said Burton, "You want to beat the elite teams like Midwestern State and West Texas, they take care of the ball. That's what we need to work on to get up to that next level."
 
With the win, Midwestern State advances to tomorrow's LSC Championship game, and will face the winner of today's semi-final showdown between West Texas A&M and Texas Woman's.
 
The Lions will return to Commerce, having pulled off just the sixth season in school history of reaching .500 or better. The 2015-16 season will begin in November.