COMMERCE— The Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team travels to Wichita Falls to face Midwestern State on Thursday. It will be the second game between the two schools, with A&M-Commerce winning the first game 72-61 on Dec. 3.
WHO: Texas A&M-Commerce (14-4, 6-3 LSC) at Midwestern State (12-6, 5-4 LSC)
WHERE: D.L. Ligon Coliseum in Wichita Falls, Texas
WHEN: Thursday, Jan. 26 at 7:30 p.m.
LIVE STATS: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=150790
LIVE VIDEO: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/msu/
LIVE AUDIO: www.ketr.org
The Lions are coming off a 104-103 double overtime win over West Texas A&M. With all the things that had to fall their way, head coach
Sam Walker was still unable to fully put into words what the game was like.
"Exciting, that covers it all. I don't know what other word you use to describe that game," he said with a laugh. "That ending was unbelievable. I've thought about it the last couple days and I don't think I've ever been part of a game like that that had so much drama, so many moving parts that needed to happen for us to be successful and so many people who made that happen. Hopefully we can build from that because we have some tough games this week."
The Lions are now halfway through their conference season and have faced every team in the league. At the beginning of the year, Walker said it would be a very competitive conference with a lot of good teams, and after facing each team, he said the teams have definitely fit the billing.
"It's very evident," he said. "We really enjoy looking at the scores. Every game seems to go down to the wire. Everybody is talking about the road trips they have to take and the next guy talks about a different road trip or a tough game at home. You have to play the season out. We are at the halfway mark right now. There is so much basketball left to play. There are so many opportunities to make a run and have success. There are so many ways that, if you are not prepared, you are not going to experience the year that you want to have. There are just a lot of really good teams."
The Lions now head to Wichita Falls to face Midwestern State. The Lions defeated the Mustangs in their first matchup in December. Walker had seen the tape multiple times following the game, but when he put it in to watch in preparation for their rematch, he quickly stopped the tape.
"We watched it here yesterday and we turned it off with the team and started watching a more recent game," he said. "We have changed and evolved so much as a team and they have changed and evolved so much as a team. Going back to watch a game in early December doesn't really do too much good. Six weeks later, with the evolution that teams have, we've got to find another way to be successful. And they have to find another way to be successful."
Walker knows that not only his team and MSU have changed, but also every team in the conference has changed since the early games of the season. Each team has had to figure out what works and what they need to improve on.
"I think the second half, especially in our next four games because we are playing teams that we played against before Christmas, we will see that those teams, whether they are better or worse, they are going to be different. And we are a little bit different too. We are finding the things that we do well and trying to execute to try and do those. I think that when it comes to March and we have the conference tournament in Allen, people are going to see a lot of good teams that are playing at a high level during that time."
