COMMERCE – The Texas A&M University-Commerce women's basketball continues to impress in its first season in the Southland Conference, moving to 5-0 in conference play, with a 57-52 win over the Lamar Cardinals inside the Field House on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Lions are 5-0 to start conference play for the first time since 2019-20 and are now 7-10 overall. The Cardinals drop to 8-8 overall and 2-3 in conference games. The two teams meet again on January 26 in Beaumont.
 
Dyani Robinson (Langham Creek) surpassed current Lion assistant coach and former Lion great Princess Davis for third on the all-time scoring list. Davis finished her career with 1,385 points.
 
The Lions scored the first five points of the game, but the Cardinals tied the game at nine and took a 16-14 lead at the end of the first quarter on a buzzer-beating three pointer. An and-one by Robinson with 48 seconds in the second half extended the Lions' lead to six, which was their largest in the first half, but a three pointer from the Cardinals on the other end trimmed the Lion lead down to 31-28 at halftime.
 
The game stayed within one possession through the first nine minutes of the third quarter, until a 6-0 run to close out the quarter gave the Lions a 43-39 lead going into the fourth quarter.
 
Lamar tied the game at 43, but the Lions scored the next four to go back up by four with 5:39 to play. DesiRay Kernal (Newton, Kan.) hit two free throws to push the Lions' lead to 51-45 with 2:10 left in the game. Lamar stormed back to pull to 52-50 in the final minute, but the Lions made just enough free throws down the stretch to not let the lead get below two.
 
Kernal and Robinson scored 16 each, with Kernal also grabbing eight rebounds and Robinson recorded two rebounds, two steals, and an assist. Off the bench, Jordyn Beaty (Woodville) scored nine, to go along with four rebounds and she also blocked a shot.
 
Mia Deck (Frisco – Lone Star) scored eight and grabbed seven rebounds, while also recording two assists and two steals. Laila Lawrence (Lewisville) scored four as well as four rebounds and team-leading four assists.
 
For Lamar, Sabria Dean scored 18 and recorded four steals, while Akasha Davis scored 14.


UP NEXT
The Lions head south to Louisiana for two games next weekend, facing New Orleans at 5 p.m. on Thursday night and Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday at 1 p.m.