DALLAS – The Texas A&M University-Commerce women's basketball team outscored the Southern Methodist Mustangs in two quarters and the two teams tied one quarters, but the Mustangs held on for a 66-58 win at the Moody Coliseum on Monday night.
 
The narrow loss marks the second of three tune-ups for the Lions before its last season in NCAA Division II begins on November 12. A&M-Commerce takes on Houston on Friday night at 6 p.m. in the final exhibition of the preseason. The regular season begins next week against Colorado State-Pueblo.
 
The Lions shot 54 percent from the field in the first quarter and held the Mustangs to a field percentage of .294, to lead 18-16 after the first 10 minutes. Dyani Robinson (Langham Creek) had eight points in the first quarter, she had 18 in the game.
 
SMU, playing its first game under first-year coach Toyelle Wilson, outscored A&M-Commerce 23-11 in the second quarter to grab a 39-29 lead at the half. Kayla White came off the bench and scored 24 points for the Mustangs. A&M-Commerce had 11 free throw shots in the first half, but only made three, in the game they shot 21 for 33 from the charity stripe.
 
The Lions scored the first five points of the second half to cut the deficit in half and outscored the Mustangs 15-13 in the quarter. A&M-Commerce shot 3 for 21 from beyond-the-arc in the game.
 
SMU had a 57-48 lead at the 4:25 mark in the fourth quarter. A jumper and two free throw shots by Laila Lawrence (Lewisville) cut it to 57-52, but the Mustangs responded with a 6-0 run to push the lead back up to 11. The Lions outscored the Mustangs by three points in the closing stretch, but could not overcome the low shooting numbers in the second quarter.
 
The Mustangs capitalized on 23 turnovers by the Lions and scored 22 points off turnovers as well as 10 second chance points on 16 offensive rebounds.
 
Lawrence continued the strong start to her freshman campaign, reaching double digit scoring in both exhibition games. On Monday night, she had 14 points and six rebounds. Julianna Louis (Long Beach, Calif.) also had six rebounds, as did DesiRay Kernal (Newton, Kan.).
 
Symmone James (McKinney – Boyd) had four points and five rebounds, Dorian Norris (Lake Dallas) also scored four points and grabbed five rebounds. Louis, Norris, and Chania Wright (DeSoto) had two steals each.