CANYON – The Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team engaged in another instant classic with West Texas A&M University, but this time came out on the wrong end of a 100-98 decision at the First United Bank Center on Thursday night.
 
The Lions are now 18-8 overall and 10-7 in the Lone Star Conference entering the final game of the regular season. West Texas A&M is now 23-7 overall and 11-6 in LSC play.
 
A&M-Commerce now heads to UT Permian Basin for a 4 p.m. tipoff Saturday in a game with massive implications. UTPB has a shot at an LSC title, while the Lions can now finish as high as third in the LSC standings.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- There were 18 ties and 21 lead changes in the game, which went down to the final possession once again.
- Five Lions scored in double digits, led by 20 points and seven rebounds from Malik Albert.
- Jovan Austin netted 18 points with six assists, while De'Andre Carson scored 16 points on 5-of-6 shooting.
- Marquieth Russell and Dorian Armstrong each scored 10 points in the post.
- The Lions outrebounded WT 39-37, including 14 offensive rebounds to the Buffs' seven.
- A&M-Commerce shot 47.9 percent (34-of-71) from the field, including 9-of-20 (45.0 percent) from three-point range. WT shot 50.0 percent (29-of-58) from the field and made 11-of-31 (35.5 percent) of its three-point attempts.
- For WT, David Chavlovich scored 29 points and Joseph Prince netted 24 points.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
As could be expected after the teams' first meeting this season, the game had plenty of momentum swings throughout. The Lions were the first team to take control thanks to three-pointers from Austin and Carson, followed by seven points in a row from Albert, giving the blue and gold a 16-11 lead with 14:33 left in the first half.
 
WT stole that momentum back as the Lions went scoreless for 4:21 and the Buffs scored 12 straight. A Prince triple at the 11:14 mark made it a 23-16 lead for the hosts.
 
It took just over six minutes for the Lions to chip away at the lead from the charity stripe, and Trey Washington drained a three-pointer with 5:28 on the first half clock to tie the game back up at 30-all.
 
From there, neither side led by more than two points for the rest of the period. The teams went to the dressing room with the score tied at 43-43. A&M-Commerce shot 45.2 percent (14-of-31) from the field in the half, while West Texas A&M shot 52.2 percent (12-of-23) in the period.
 
Albert had nine points at the half to lead the Lions, while Austin, Carson, and Russell had eight apiece.
 
Carson started the second half scoring off with a three-pointer, and the Lions would go on to hold the Buffs off the scoreboard for nearly three minutes, taking a 57-52 lead on a Trey Seymore three-point play at the 14:04 mark.
 
WT used a Prince triple and Chavlovich layup to immediately erase the deficit and the see-saw action continued from there, as neither team could get ahead by more than two points for the next seven minutes.
 
After a pair of Austin free throws tied the game at 76-all with 5:52 to go, the Buffs went on a 13-4 run. A three-point play by Chavlovich with just under three minutes on the clock gave the hosts an 89-80 advantage.
 
The Lions were not discouraged.
 
Twice in the final minute and a half, the Lions scored, then stole the WT inbounds pass and scored again. These essentially turned into four-point plays that allowed an eight-point deficit with 1:39 on the clock to dwindle down to three points with just under 20 seconds to play.
 
Carson drained a three-pointer from the corner and Albert made a contested triple from the wing, but the Lions had been forced to foul to stop the clock and the Buffs had made the most of their free throw chances. WT made eight of its last nine free throw chances in the final 1:10. Albert's challenged shot cut the lead to one point with under a second to play, but the Lions were unable to get off a desperation heave, and the Buffs earned the victory.
 
The Lions shot 50.0 percent (20-of-40) in the second half. Both teams missed seven free throws in the half, but WT was 17-of-24 at the charity stripe in the period, while A&M-Commerce was 11-of-18 and didn't have a chance at the free throw line in the final 3:19.

HEAD COACH SAM WALKER AFTER THE GAME
On the way the teams went back and forth all night
"It looked like we just picked up where we left off in Commerce. What a game. It was just a battle by both teams. I thought they played really well. I thought we got the best that they could play and I thought they got the best that we can play. I told their coach after the game. That's as good as we can play right there. I'm proud of my guys and he should be proud of his guys. We had a really good night and they beat us."
 
On how his team performed
"I thought we shot the ball well. I thought we shared the ball. I thought we really defended well. The game was played so fast with breakneck speed and teams burying shots against each other. And there were 74 free throws shot. It was just one of those games. And it was efficient. It wasn't like teams were coming down and had one pass and one shot. It was cut, cut, guy come off a screen, shoot it and make it. We would come down and cut, cut and come off a ball screen and drive for a layup. It was just back and forth. If you paid a ticket to come and watch this game, you got to see a good one. Unfortunately for us, we didn't come up on the winning end."
 
On where his team is with one game to play
This is a very efficient team. There is a reason why they have the wins that they have. And there is a reason why we have the wins that we have. I came into the locker room and told the guys how proud I am of them. At this time of the year you want to be playing good basketball and we played good basketball tonight.