COMMERCE– The Texas A&M University-Commerce women's basketball team opened up the 2017-18 season with a 70-67 win over Metropolitan State University of Denver on Friday afternoon. The game was part of the 1525 Memorial Tournament, sponsored by Domino's, Holiday Inn Express and Best Western Plus of Greenville.
 
The win brings the Lions to 1-0 on the season while the Roadrunners fall to 0-1.
 
Both teams will play again at the Field House on Saturday. Metro State will face Lubbock Christian University at 5:30 p.m. They will be followed by A&M-Commerce's matchup against No. 5 Colorado State-Pueblo at 7:30 p.m.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Brianna Wise scored a career-high 24 points, collecting an offensive rebound at the end of the game to seal the win. She also had six rebounds and two assists. Wise scored 13 points from the free-throw line.
- In her return from a season-ending injury, Princess Davis shined with 13 points, nine rebounds and three steals.
- Artaejah Gay scored 12 points and pulled down four boards. Jasmyn Eckerman had six rebounds while Jenna Price had four boards and seven points.
- The Lions scored 26 points from the free throw line and recorded 13 offensive rebounds and eight steals.
- The Lions struggled from the three-point line, shooting 2-for-11 in the game.
- A&M-Commerce scored 34 points in the paint.
- There were four ties and three lead changes in the game. The Lions led by as many as eight in the fourth but had to fight for the win at the end, scoring four points in the final 17 seconds from the free throw line.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Lions fell behind quickly in the game as MSU-D scored the first six points of the game. A&M-Commerce missed its first six shots before a steal from Wise allowed a fast break bucket to get the Lions started. This led to a 9-0 run, helped by three layups from Davis, including a three-point play. The teams continued to battle as the Roadrunners took a 15-12 lead after the first quarter.
 
Davis scored a layup to start the second quarter as the Lions cut into the Roadrunner lead. After a three-pointer put MSU-D up by four, a fast break bucket from Melanie Ransom cut into the lead before a three-pointer from Wise gave the Lions the lead. Wise hit another three to again give A&M-Commerce the lead. Davis had another transition layup before the Roadrunners scored the final four points of the second quarter to lead 27-26 at halftime.
 
Davis had 11 points in the first half while Wise had 10 points, scoring 21 of the 26 Lion points.
 
The teams continued to battle as the Lions could not push their lead to more than three points in the second half after gaining the advantage. That changed in the late stages of the third quarter as Courtney Fields scored a layup to give the Lions their largest lead of the game, a 47-41 advantage with 1:45 to play in the third. The Lions led 49-45 after the third quarter.
 
The Lions brought their lead back to six points early in the fourth on a free throw from Gay and then surpassed it to lead by eight points after two free throws from Alex Nance. The Roadrunners then went on a run, cutting the Lion lead to just two points at the halfway mark of the fourth. Price made two free throws to bring the lead back to six before MSU-D again came back, this time tying the score with three minutes left.
 
Artaejah Gay scored seven points in the fourth quarter, scoring a layup off of an offensive rebound the give the Lions a three point lead. With 17 seconds left, the Roadrunners got a steal and an easy layup to bring the Lion lead to just one point. MSU-D then fouled the Lions to force free throws. While the Lions missed both, Wise was the hero, out-jumping her defender and snagging the rebound. She made both of her free throws to bring the lead back up to three. After a Metro State miss, Wise again was fouled and sank both free throws to put the game out of reach. A late bucket by Metro State brought the final score to 70-67.