COMMERCE— The Texas A&M University-Commerce women's basketball team will return home to face Texas Woman's University on Saturday. The game will be the first game the Lions have played in their home arena in 42 days.
 
WHO: Texas A&M-Commerce (10-4, 5-2 LSC) vs. Texas Woman's (10-5, 3-4 LSC)
WHERE: The Field House in Commerce, Texas
WHEN: Saturday, Jan. 14 at 2 p.m.
LIVE STATS: http://statb.us/b/147056
LIVE VIDEO: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/tamucommerce/
LIVE AUDIO: www.ketr.org
TICKETS: http://lionathletics.com/sports/2016/11/18/2016-17-basketball-ticket-information.aspx

The Lions are coming off of an 89-74 win on the road against Tarleton State. The Lions trailed by as many as eight in the third quarter but turned it on in the fourth quarter, outscoring TSU 24-6.
 
"It was definitely the best quarter we have played all year, especially on the defensive end," Burton said. "That's the best defense I've seen as far as rotating, playing hard, being able to pressure, forcing difficult shots and capitalizing. When we forced turnovers in that fourth quarter, I thought we did a good job of finishing on the back end. I'm definitely happy with that."
 
The game was the final game of a six-game road stand that started against Eastern New Mexico in December. The Lions went 4-2 on their trip. As competitors, Burton and his team wanted to go 6-0, but he was proud of the way his team fought in difficult arenas hundreds of miles from home.
 
"You want to win every game," he said. "But to walk away with the wins that we did, I thought those were big. How we play on the road will definitely be the key down the stretch. But we did put ourselves in a good position in these nine games left at home this season to really control our destiny."
 
The Lions will play nine of their next 11 games in the Field House, after being away for six weeks. Burton looks forward to being able to play in a familiar gym and to feel the energy of Lion fans.
 
"We will be in our environment," he said. "We will be in a place where we are familiar shooting. That is going to be big for us. It's going to be weird. We haven't played here in so long. December 3rd was our last home game. I know our girls are excited to be back and to be back in front of our home fans."
 
The Lions have improved their shooting percentage in their last two games. In their first 12 games, the Lions shot 36 percent from the field. In their last two, they have shot 46 percent from the field, including 39 percent from behind the arc. Both of those percentages are at least 10 percentage points higher than their season average.
 
"We've just talked more about having to shoot the ball with confidence," Burton said. "We have done a little more shooting but I can't say we put in all of these new shooting drills or anything like that. We started emphasizing our shot selection. Part of what we had done in the beginning part of the season was we were turning down some open looks from people who I think are capable shooters. I thought that us shooting with confidence has really changed our team and how we have been able to play."
 
Off to tying a program best 10-4 start with a long home stretch ahead, Burton knows some teams have the tendency to get complacent. He is confident his team will stay focused on its end goal of competing for the conference championship.
 
"We have to continue to be hungry and not be satisfied with the first half of the season," he said. "We are halfway right now and the second half is more important than the first half. We've got to still have attention to detail in what we are doing and we've still got to be hungry for every game. It's tough to maintain that level of focus throughout the whole year but that's what the great teams do. That's what we have to do."
 
The Lions now face another 10-win team in TWU. Having split the season series in both of his previous two seasons at A&M-Commerce, Burton feels like games against their near-neighbors from Denton have become an intense rivalry. He attributes that to the coaching staff at TWU as well as his own and is prepared to have another touch matchup on Saturday.
 
"They have so many moving parts," Burton said. "They have so many different people that can play multiple positions. They can be tough to guard and they can be tough on you as far as how they guard. They are capable of giving us a different look defensively every time down the floor. We've got to be prepared for what they throw at us. That team is scrappy and I think the team that is able to guard just a little bit better and play physical and scrappy is going to win. We have to make sure that that's us."