COMMERCE— The Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team will face West Texas A&M on Saturday in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA South Central Regional Tournament. The Lions are one of 64 teams to have made the NCAA Division II Tournament.
WHO: Texas A&M-Commerce (19-10, 10-8 LSC) vs. West Texas A&M (24-8, 12-6 LSC)
WHERE: Lockridge Arena in Golden, Colo.
WHEN: Saturday, March 11 at 1 p.m. CST
LIVE STATS: http://www.ncaa.com/game/basketball-men/d2/2017/03/11/tex-am-commerce-west-tex-am
LIVE VIDEO: http://www.minesathletics.com/tv
LIVE AUDIO: www.ketr.org
The Lions are coming off of a second round loss to UT Permian Basin in the Lone Star Conference postseason tournament. Head coach
Sam Walker was proud of his team and they way they fought against the eventual champions and is thankful his team still has the chance to keep playing.
"That's the important thing," he said. "Most of the teams in Division II basketball are done with their season. They are out recruiting and talking about offseason. We are still getting an opportunity to play. We had a very hard fought battle against Cameron where we came out on top and then to lose to the No. 2 seed in the region and the No. 1 seed in the tournament is no shame. I thought we played really hard."
The Lions will now face West Texas A&M, the third seed in the regional tournament. The teams split the season series in two games that came down to the wire. Walker remembers vividly the conversation he had with WT head coach Tom Brown in their postgame handshake after the second game.
"We shook hands and both their coach and myself said, 'I don't want to play you guys again. We don't want to play you guys either,'" Walker said with a smile. "But with the first game ending in double overtime with us winning 105-104 and the other game ending 100-98, its going to be one of those games where maybe the first team to 100 wins."
After 90 minutes of game action over two games, WT held a slim 204-203 scoring advantage over the Lions. Walker sees a lot of similarities in how the teams operate and knows another tightly contested match will take place on Saturday.
"Both of us score the ball and really look to attack the basket," he said. "We are both at the top of the league in attempts at the free throw line. We play an aggressive style. I like to think we are guarding each other. I just don't know if we have the ability to stop each other from scoring. It is two very evenly matched teams and it should be a very good game."
This is the second time in three seasons the Lions have qualified for the regional round of the NCAA Tournament. Although a lot of his players weren't on the team in their run two years ago, Walker likes the way the LSC prepares teams for these types of tournaments.
"Our conference does a really good job," he said. "Everything our team is going to see at the regional tournament, we do it at the conference tournament. From the practice schedules to when you can get on and off the court. We try to make our conference tournament as much like the regional tournament as possible. I think the Lone Star Conference teams are going to be prepared and go into it with a good tournament feel."
Should the Lions advance past the first round, their second round matchup would be against another LSC opponent: the winner of Texas A&M-Kingsville and UT Permian Basin. Walker says it speaks volumes about how competitive the conference was this season.
"There are five of us," he said. "Out of eight teams that make the regionals, five of them come from our conference. That says a lot about the power of the LSC."
The semifinal round of the regional tournament is played on Sunday and the final round is played on Tuesday. The winner of the regional tournament advances to the Elite 8, which will start on March 22 in Sioux Falls, S.D.
