COMMERCE— The Texas A&M University-Commerce women's basketball team continues its December road stretch as they face Western New Mexico on Saturday. This is the first meeting between the teams in their respective histories. It is also the last Lone Star Conference contest for both teams in the 2016 calendar year.
 
WHO: Texas A&M University-Commerce (6-3) at Western New Mexico (4-5)
WHERE: Drag's Court in Silver City, N.M.
WHEN: Saturday, December 10 at 3 p.m. CST
LIVE STATS: http://wnmumustangs.com/custompages/livestats/xlive.htm
LIVE VIDEO: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/wnmu/
 
The Lions are coming off of their first conference loss of the season, a 75-64 defeat by Eastern New Mexico. The Lions got off to a slow start and were unable to recover from a double-digit deficit, something they had done in each of their three previous games.
 
"We knew eventually if we didn't start games better, it would come back to bite us and it did last game," said A&M-Commerce head coach Jason Burton. "We didn't come out ready to play on either end of the floor, especially on the defensive end."
 
The Lions got 35 of their 64 points from the charity stripe. Their 35-of-44 shooting set school records for most free throws made and most free throws attempted in a single game.
 
"As poorly as we shot, we still had a chance to win the game if we had a better defensive effort on the first half," Burton said. "We did a great job of getting to the free throw line."
 
Burton and his team know the importance of conference road games and how difficult it is to win on the road. He knows his team needs to build off of its early success and continue to improve in the areas they have struggled.
 
"We've known all year it's not easy to win on the road, and conference is no different," he said. "We'll see what we learned next game—if we come out with a different mindset. We can't be complacent and comfortable with our early wins. We have to stay hungry and keep getting better."
 
The Lions face another stiff challenge against Western New Mexico, who is looking for its first conference win of the season. The Lions had to take a plane to Lubbock before busing to ENMU and have to travel across the state of New Mexico to Silver City for their contest against WNMU. The long travel day cuts down on the physical work the team can do to prepare for the Mustangs.
 
"It will be a lot of mental preparation for Western New Mexico," Burton said. "But I think our team did a good job last week against Midwestern of being able to have one day in between to prepare and watch film and be able to walk through some things on the floor. I think our team will be able to do that again against Western New Mexico."
 
One player Burton is particularly concerned with is WNMU senior Jordan Gutierrez. She is averaging 18.4 points for the Mustangs, and 21.3 points in conference action. She had a 36-point scoring outburst against UT Permian Basin last week and is shooting a high percentage from the field.
 
"When you have somebody who can light it up like that, that's pretty impressive. What's even more impressive is that she did it on the road last week. She is going to be at home this week in the gym that she shoots in all the time and she's going to be comfortable. If she's capable of scoring 36 on the road, there is no telling what she can do at home.
 
Burton also mentioned several players he knows will be a challenge to compete against, but he is more focused on fixing the mistakes that have plagued his team made in recent games. He knows if they don't focus on themselves first, it won't matter how much they prepare for another opponent.
 
"Western is has some talented players and they're playing hard," Burton said. "But our focus is on correcting the things on our end that we need to. When we learn to be consistent in the things we do and to control the things that we can control, we can be a consistently good team."