COMMERCE – The Texas A&M University-Commerce women's basketball team dressed 14 players in Saturday's opening game of Lion Hoopsgiving presented by Best Western Plus at the Field House. All 14 players appeared in the game and scored at least two points in the 104-56 win over the Arkansas-Monticello Blossoms.
 
Leading for the Lions was Dyani Robinson (Langham Creek) with 17 points on 6 for 10 shooting. She also grabbed five rebounds and scored the first five points of the game as the Lions did not trail for the second straight game. DesiRay Kernal (Newton, Kan.) made a tip-in and Chania Wright (DeSoto) knocked down two free throws for a 9-0 run.
 
The Lions are 5-0 on the season, which is their best start to a season since 2019-20. A&M-Commerce's smallest deficit in the first quarter after the opening stretch was five points at the 5:19 mark on a layup by Taylor Flores, who led the Blossoms with eight points in the first quarter. She also led both teams with 19 points in the game. Taylor East had six rebounds.
 
Two free throws from Robinson gave the Lions 30 points in the first quarter, which are the most by the Lions in a quarter this season. A&M-Commerce had a 30-16 lead after the first quarter.
 
The Blossoms were held scoreless for the first 6 minutes 56 seconds of the second quarter. The Lions started the quarter on a 13-0 run and led by as much as 35 in the quarter, on a layup by Juliana Louis (Long Beach, Calif.). Louis had eight points and five rebounds as well as two steals.
 
Wright had 10 points and four assists. Asiyha Smith (Conway, Ark.) led the team with five assists. She scored nine points and four rebounds to go along with it. Kernal scored eight points, recorded three steals, grabbed four rebounds, and dished out two assists. Ravae Payne (Pearland) went 3 for 4 from the free throw line for three points.
 
Making her return to the court after missing the last two games due to injury, Symmone James (McKinney – Boyd) scored 10 points off the bench, also led the team with nine rebounds. Laila Lawrence (Lewisville) scored in double digits off the bench as well. She had 12 points and four rebounds.
 
Mia Deck (Frisco – Lone Star) and Olivia Russell (Auburn Hills, Mich.) had six points each. Russell also had eight rebounds. Dorian Norris (Lake Dallas) scored seven points and collected five rebounds while handing out four assists.
 
To round out the 58 points off the bench, Victoria Hinton (Woodbridge, Va.) had four points and two rebounds, while Ashley Shipley (Tucumcari, N.M.) and Makenzie Schott (Flower Mound) had two points each.
 
The Lions outshot the Blossoms, 44.4 to 34.9 percent and had 29 points from the charity stripe, while the Blossoms only had three. The largest lead of the game for the Lions came at the 1:08 mark of the fourth quarter. A layup by Hinton gave the Lions a 102-53 lead.



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UP NEXT
The Lions close out Lion Hoopsgiving presented by Best Western Plus against Northeastern State on Sunday at 3 p.m. The Riverhawks fell to UT Tyler on Saturday night. The Patriots take on the Blossoms at 1 p.m. on Sunday.