CANYON– The Texas A&M University-Commerce women's basketball team suffered a 79-51 loss to West Texas A&M on Thursday. The Lions fell behind early in the first quarter and could never recover.
 
The loss drops the Lions to 19-8 on the season and 13-6 in the Lone Star Conference. WT goes to 21-7 and 14-5 in conference play. WT takes over third place in the conference standings with one game remaining.
 
The Lions finish the regular season as they travel to take on UT Permian Basin. The game will begin at 2 p.m. at the UTPB Gymnasium in Odessa.
 
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- The Lions struggled from the field from the opening tip. The Lions shot 25 percent from the field. WT shot 50 percent from the field and 56 percent from behind the arc.
- Krystal Pickron led the Lions with 16 points, including going 4-of-6 from the three-point line.
- Khala Riley had nine points and led the Lions with five assists. Artaejah Gay had five points and led the team with seven rebounds.
- The Lions forced 18 turnovers but gave up 17 turnovers. WT scored 21 points off of turnovers while the Lions scored 14.
- The Lions were outscored 28-14 in the paint.
- Alie Decker led WT with 17 points. Madison Parker had 15 points and seven rebounds. Maddison Wild had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds and Sasha Watson had 13 points and five assists for the Lady Buffs.
- The Lions trailed by as many as 30 and never led in the game.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Lions fell behind early as WT scored the first 10 points of the game, including five from Wild. The Lady Buffs hit two three pointers on that run. Pickron broke the Lion scoring drought with a three of her own after the Lions went scoreless for four minutes.
 
WT continued to build on its lead. After a layup from Penina Faumui cut the WT lead down to seven, the Lady Buffs went on a 9-0 run to push their lead to 16 before a late basket from Riley sent the Lions into the first quarter break trailing 22-8.
 
Both teams went scoreless in the first two minutes of the quarter before WT again pushed its lead to 16. Pickron hit another three and seemed to catch fire from behind the arc. After another WT basket, Riley hit a three of her own and then got a steal on the next possession and finished the break off with a layup to cut the WT lead to 10 with six minutes to play in the half. Pickron hit another three to cut the Lady Buff lead back to single digits.
 
Midway through the quarter, the Lions hit another field goal slump. They went three minutes without a field goal and WT pushed its lead back to 14 points. The Lions finished the half on a run. With two minutes to play, Pickron got to the free throw line and netted two points. Courtney Fields then got a steal and layup to cut the lead back to 10. Pickron had a layup with a minute to play and after back-to-back turnovers by WT, Jenna Price hit a layup with nine seconds to send the Lions into halftime down 36-28.
 
Pickron led all scorers with 13 points, including 3-of-5 from downtown. She also had two assists. Riley had seven points and three assists in the first half. Wild led WT with nine points and pulled down six rebounds. Decker added eight points, five rebounds and three assists for the Lady Buffs.
 
Things began to snowball for the Lions in the third quarter. With eight minutes to go in the quarter, WT went on a 7-0 run to bring their lead to 15 points. Pickron again hit a three before the Lady Buffs took complete control of the game. WT scored 10 of the next 11 points to push their lead to 21 points. That lead was brought to 23 before the horn of the third quarter. The Lions trailed 60-38 at the end of the third.
 
WT hit back-to-back threes to open up the fourth quarter to bring their lead to a game-high 28. The Lions held the Buffs without a field goal for more than seven minutes but the Lions continued their own cold streak. The Lions missed 10 of their first 12 shots in the fourth quarter. Both teams were able to score from the free throw line but the Lions could not mount a run.
 
Head Coach Jason Burton after the game
On what happened to the team this game
"It was definitely one of those days. We had a big lack of toughness today. We lacked mental toughness, toughness to fight through runs by them. We let things in our minds affect us and that hasn't happened to us before. It kind of just snowballed today. It was just one of those things."
 
On how WT played
"They came off a loss and they regrouped and definitely sharpened things up. Even without Sasha Watson [for a long stretch], I thought they played a good game. We've got to make sure we come back and are ready to go on Saturday.
 
On struggles from the field and the free throw line
"I thought this week, some of the things that we practiced didn't translate to the game. And I thought our guards didn't attack as much. Later on in the game, we started to get to the free throw line more but we didn't convert. We shot more free throws than they did but we didn't shoot a very high percentage."
 
On recovering from the loss with the conference tournament looming
"The good thing is that although it was a playoff-like atmosphere as far as the game and what it meant, we still have basketball ahead of us. We've got a lot to learn from this and we still have one more on this trip. We have the ability to bounce back and go get one in two days. We definitely have to learn from this one today and figure out who we are and who we want to be come next week."