COMMERCE— The Texas A&M University-Commerce women's basketball team will face UT Permian Basin on Saturday. The contest will be the final game of the regular season for the Lions. A&M-Commerce defeated the Falcons 74-67 in January.
WHO: Texas A&M-Commerce (19-8, 13-6 LSC) at UT Permian Basin (7-19, 3-16 LSC)
WHERE: UTPB Gymnasium in Odessa, Texas
WHEN: Saturday, Feb. 25 at 2 p.m.
LIVE STATS: http://www.sidearmstats.com/utpb/wbball
LIVE VIDEO: http://utpbfalcons.com/showcase
LIVE AUDIO: www.ketr.org
The Lions are coming off of a tough 79-51 loss to West Texas A&M on Thursday. The Lions fell behind early and let the game slip away from them in the second half. While disappointed with the loss, head coach
Jason Burton knows his team has the ability to put it behind them quickly.
"The thing with this team is every time we have played a game and every time we have lost, we've been able to regroup and bounce back," he said. "Knock on wood, we haven't lost two games in a row all year. And I don't think that's going to change [Saturday]."
After the game, Burton didn't overreact to one bad loss. But he did have a message for his team on what they need to be able to do to achieve their goals this season.
"The one thing I talked about in the locker room was consistency," he said. "I challenged our players because some games, we come in and get a good game from someone off the bench and then the next game, we don't. If we are going to win a conference tournament, you are going to have to play back-to-back-to-back. We need to be able to consistently rely on people and know what we are going to get from them. Hopefully we can grow from this and learn a big lesson from this. Every game gets a little more important."
Burton is confident in his bunch and feels they have what it takes to compete for the conference title. He hopes this setback will refocus his team and teach them another valuable lesson they can use moving forward.
"I think we've got a good group in that locker room," Burton said. "We've got a group that is still hungry for more. Hopefully this serves as a wake up call. Although we've beaten a team one time, everybody is fighting this time of year and everybody is playing better basketball every game. Hopefully we can grow from this and learn a big lesson from this. Every game gets a little more important."
With eight players in their first year of regular playing action under Burton, the coach knows his young players are still building confidence in themselves, their abilities and their assignments. He hopes his players come to realize that they are good players and have been playing well all year.
"We've just got to remember who we are," he said. "We are a team that is dominant on the rebounds and dominant in the paint and one that finds a way to get to the free throw line. We've just got to continue to build the confidence of [our young players]. That's what we've got to make sure we do in the next couple days is make sure they are confident going into UTPB because they are a good ball club. They can shoot the ball well, especially at home. We've got to make sure we are confident going into that game and then going into the conference tournament."
With the loss to WT, the Lions lost the ability to finish higher than third in the conference and would need help to get into the third spot. This means the Lions will have to win three games in three consecutive days in order to win the conference title. While matchup can be important, Burton is more concerned with his own team and playing the right way come next week.
"Whatever happens Saturday, we've got to get ready for Allen," he said. "We've got to come to play. I'm not necessarily worried about whether we finish third or finish fourth. We are going to play a team that we have beaten before and a team we are capable of beating. It's about us and making sure our mind is right going into next week."
