COMMERCE— The Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team will travel to Lawton, Okla. to face Cameron University on Saturday. It is the second matchup between the two teams, with the Aggies besting the Lions 81-74 in overtime at the Field House in December.
WHO: Texas A&M-Commerce (14-5, 6-4 LSC) at Cameron University (13-7, 6-4 LSC)
WHERE: Aggie Gym in Lawton, Oklahoma
WHEN: Saturday, Jan. 28 at 4 p.m.
LIVE STATS: http://www.sidearmstats.com/cameron/mbball/
LIVE VIDEO: https://boxcast.tv/view/mens-basketball-vs-texas-am-commerce-660516
LIVE AUDIO: www.ketr.org
The Lions are coming off of a 78-57 loss to Midwestern State on Thursday. The Lions owned a three-point lead at halftime but struggled early in the second half and the game got away from them.
"We just didn't make shots early," said head coach
Sam Walker. "We get to the first media timeout and we had scored one point. We were driving to the bucket, we got a layup here and an open three there and we just couldn't get the ball to fall. And it starts to snowball on you. Once it got to 10 or 12, guys started to try and make a play here or there and that just leads to breakouts on the other end. It just turned out to be a bad night for the Lions."
While some teams may have reacted in a negative way to a 21-point loss on the road, Walker was proud of his team after the game for owning the loss and not blaming each other, but sticking together through adversity. He is confident the team will bounce back in its next game.
"There was a lot of talk in our locker room of taking onus of ourselves and what we are doing," he said. "I heard from multiple people, 'Man, we got our tails whipped tonight.' When those are the conversations you hear in your locker room and there is not finger pointing, they get it. They understand two good teams came out and played and one team was quicker to the ball, one got an extra possession with an offensive rebound or made a deflection or a defensive stop at a critical time and really took control of the game. These guys are good at reacting. They want to be challenged and I think we've got a group that can rise to any challenge."
With games being played two days apart, Walker knows the team needs to put the game behind them. He understands the team can't dwell on the loss. They just have to put their heads down and move on quickly.
"It's one of the positives of college basketball," Walker said. "You don't get a lot of time to celebrate great wins and you don't get a lot of time to think too much about your losses. You've got to get ready for your next opponent."
The Lions look to bounce back against Cameron on Saturday. The Lions lost to the Aggies in overtime in December and are looking to get the season split. The Lions have not lost back-to-back games this season and are looking to keep that trend going.
"Unfortunately Cameron lost yesterday too," Walker said. "So we are going to have a bounce-back game and they are too. It is going to be a great Saturday afternoon. This team is really good when coming off a loss. Every time we have had a loss, we have played a really good game the next night. In our last doubleheader, we lost a very similar game to Permian Basin and then we came out the next night and scored 104 points in double overtime. Let's hope we have that type of accuracy and that type of comeback ability in Saturday's game."
With a win against Cameron, the Lions would split their road trip and remain in the top three in the conference with nine games remaining. With such a competitive conference this season, Walker knows wins on the road are hard to come by.
"Down the stretch right here, any team in this league would be happy with splits on the road and taking care of your home court," he said. "I think if you can split on the road and protect your home court, you have a chance to cut some nets down in this league. Now our backs are against the wall. We have never lost two in a row and we've got to regroup and get ready to play Cameron."
