LUBBOCK– A cold start was too much to overcome for the second-seed Texas A&M University-Commerce women's basketball team, as the Lions fell 78-57 to the top-seed and national No. 1 Lubbock Christian in the Lone Star Conference Championship game Saturday afternoon.
 
The Lions are now 13-3 on the season, while LCU is 17-0. This was the second consecutive meeting between the two schools in the LSC Championship game.
 
The Lions will now await the announcement of the NCAA Division II Championship field, which will be announced on NCAA.com at 9 p.m. Sunday. The top six teams from the LSC and Great American Conference will qualify, with the top two seeds earning byes to the regional semifinals. The South Central Regional will be held at West Texas A&M's First United Bank Center in Canyon on March 12-13-15.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- The Lions were limited to 27.5 percent shooting (19-of-69) from the floor in the game, while LCU shot 52.7 percent (29-of-55) from the floor.
- Ravae Payne (Pearland) scored 14 points off the bench to lead the Lions, scoring three three-pointers.
- Dyani Robinson (Cypress – Langham Creek) scored 13 points as the Lions' only other double digit scorer.
- DesiRay Kernal (Newton, Kan.) and Chania Wright (DeSoto) each earned All-Tournament honors. Kernal had six points and seven rebounds in the final after a pair of double-doubles in the first two rounds.
- Juliana Louis (Long Beach, Calif.) had eight points and seven rebounds.

HEAD COACH JASON BURTON AFTER THE GAME
"It's extremely tough to play a hard-fought battle - one that took everything out of us – at 6:45 on Friday night and turn around at 3 p.m. against the No. 1 team in the country on their home floor. It's a difficult situation and I thought our girls competed as much as they could. The thing with that is, some of our shots just didn't fall. Our effort was their though. We've got 25 offensive rebounds. We put ourselves in position with the amount of shots we were able to get up – 69 to their 55 – they've just got to fall. We didn't really get to the free throw line until late, and when we did, our shots were a little short. We normally shoot in the high 70s when it comes to the free throws and we were in the 60s today. A lot of little things that added up to this loss, but I'm really proud of our girls and what we've been able to accomplish to this point in the season.
 
"This season is far from over, and there's a lot of basketball yet to be played for us. I'm confident in this team's ability to win games in the NCAA Tournament.
 
"I don't think we saw anything we didn't expect. I think we didn't match their level of physicality. We're used to some of the contact that happened leading to us getting to the foul line, and that didn't happen today. They allowed us to play a little more physical in the first half, and I did a poor job as a coach of making that adjustment and making us play a little more physical. That could have played a big role for us – that could have been an advantage for us if we'd been a little more physical. That's just something that we've got to adjust to next time we're on the floor in the postseason and be the aggressor. The most aggressive team won the game today."

 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Early shooting woes started the Lions off on the wrong foot, as A&M-Commerce missed its first eight field goal attempts. In that time, the Lady Chaps made only two shots from the floor, but four free throws gave LCU an 8-0 lead before Wright put the Lions on the board with a three-pointer four minutes into the game. Kernal scored the Lions' other four points in the period, as both teams went scoreless in the final three minutes of the quarter. The Lady Chaps led 17-7 after 10 minutes.
 
The sides went back-and-forth early in the second quarter, and the Lions had the deficit down to eight points with 7:42 left in the half, before LCU heated up from deep. Over the next five minutes, the top seed went on a 15-2 run with a trio of three-pointers to go ahead by 21 points. The Lions managed to score the final two baskets of the period, making it a 36-19 game headed to the intermission.
 
The Lions shot only 25 percent (8-of-32) in the period, while LCU was 14-of-25 (56.0 percent). There were 23 combined turnovers in the half, and the Lions held a 20-16 rebounding advantage.
 
The 18-point deficit held for the first two and a half minutes of the quarter before LCU surged again, scoring a 14-2 run and taking a 30-point lead. Payne scored seven points for the Lions in the final minute of the frame, and the score stood at 61-35 headed to the final quarter.
 
The Lions outscored the Lady Chaps, 22-17, in the fourth quarter but the damage had been done. After a 4-0 Lion run to start the quarter, LCU went on a 9-0 run to claim a 31-point lead with 5:35 to play. The Lions responded with an Asiyha Smith (Conway, Ark.) three-point play and four points from Robinson and Kernal. Jordyn Beaty (Woodville) scored twice and Payne scored the Lions' final seven points before the final horn.