SILVER CITY, N.M. – The Texas A&M University-Commerce women's basketball team survived a scare from Western New Mexico University on Thursday night, pulling out a 69-67 victory.
 
The Lions moved to 15-6 overall and remain in first place in the Lone Star Conference with an 11-2 record. Western New Mexico falls to 0-21 overall and 0-13 in the LSC.
 
A&M-Commerce now travels to Portales, N.M., to take on Eastern New Mexico at 2 p.m MST (3 p.m. CST) on Saturday.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Princess Davis led three Lions in double digit scoring with 16 points, also passing out five assists and snagging four steals.
- Artaejah Gay and Brianna Wise each scored 13 points.
- WNMU's Ciara Fields scored 29 points.
- The Lions shot 41.7 percent (25-of-60) from the field, while limiting Western New Mexico to 33.3 percent shooting (19-of-57).
- The Mustangs made 22-of-23 free throws (95.7 percent) to stay in the game. The Lions struggled at the charity stripe, making 15-of-27 (55.6 percent) of their free throws.
- Jenna Price had a game high nine rebounds, but the Mustangs had a 39-37 advantage on the boards.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Mustangs jumped out to an early lead thanks to three-point shooting. WNMU made triples on three straight possessions to put up an 11-5 advantage with 7:19 to go in the first quarter. The Lions chipped away at that lead but were unable to take a lead in the quarter. Price's three-pointer on the final possession of the period made it a 16-15 lead for Western after the initial 10 minutes.
 
WNMU stretched its lead back to six points with 7:30 left in the first half before a 10-point Lion surge gave the blue and gold their first lead of the contest. London Holland's three-pointer with 5:20 left in the half put the Lions up 26-25. Lauren Parker's layup with just under five minutes left made it a three-point game for A&M-Commerce's largest lead of the half. The Lions took a 32-31 lead into the halftime break.
 
After a pair of Lion free throws put the guests up by three early, but Fields canned a three-pointer to tie the game. The game went back and for the for five minutes before the Lions went cold, unable to score for nearly three minutes. Five straight Mustang points put the hosts back on top 43-40 with 4:18 left in the quarter.
 
The Lions scored the next four points to take the lead again, but WNMU outscored A&M-Commerce 8-4 in the last two minutes of the quarter. The Mustangs led 51-48 with 10 minutes to play.
 
A&M-Commerce erased the deficit in the first minute of the fourth quarter and took its largest lead of the game with a six-point run. Gay's layup with six minutes to go made it a 57-53 lead for the Lions.
 
The Mustangs were only able to make one field goal in the final five minutes of the game, but were 9-of-10 from the free throw line down the stretch, holding the Lions at arm's length. WNMU led 67-65 inside the final minute before Davis tied the game with 38.0 seconds remaining with a layup.
 
The Lions picked up two steals in the final minute and forced a poor Mustang shot. Two free throws in the final 30 seconds allowed the Lions to pull out the tight victory.