COMMERCE – The Texas A&M University-Commerce women's basketball team remains undefeated in Southland Conference play, but faces its toughest yet in conference play, when it faces Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday in Hammond, Louisiana. SLU is the top-ranked team from the Southland in the NCAA NET Rankings.
 
WHO: A&M-Commerce at Southeastern Louisiana
WHERE: Hammond, La. | University Center
WHEN: Saturday, January 21 | 1 p.m.
RECORDS: A&M-Commerce is 8-10 overall and 6-0 in Southland games, while Southeastern is 9-7 overall and 4-2 in SLC games.      
RANKINGS: Neither team is nationally ranked, but the SLU Lions are No. 151 in the NCAA NET rankings, and the A&M-Commerce Lions are 236.
 
LIVE AUDIO: Lion Sports Network – KETR 88.9 FM, Commerce | http://www.ketr.org
LIVE VIDEO: ESPN+ | https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/6268c91a-3aed-40b0-9100-dc6a6bccd6a0
LIVE STATS: https://lionsports.net/sidearmstats/wbball/
GAME NOTES: TAMUC | SLU | SOUTHLAND
 
SCOUTING THE SLU LIONS
• Southeastern, the top-ranked team in the Southland by the NCAA NET rankings, is 9-7 overall with marquee non-conference wins over Utah State, South Alabama, Prairie View A&M.
• The Lions lead the conference in scoring defense, scoring margin, turnover margin, while they are second in scoring offense, blocks per game, and field goal percentage.
• Alexius Horne is fifth in the conference in scoring, Chrissy Brown is seventh in rebounding. Jen Pierre is seventh in assists per game.
 
QUICK GLANCE AT THE LIONS
• A&M-Commerce overcame a 15-point deficit on Thursday to beat New Orleans and win its sixth straight game. The Lions had a 11-game winning streak last season.
• The Lions lead the Southland and are the conference leaders in scoring, second in rebounding, second in blocks, and fourth in steals.
• Laila Lawrence scored 18 for the Lions at UNO and is 14th in the SLC in scoring and DesiRay Kernal is 15th. Lawrence is also third in field goal percentage, while Kernal is fourth in rebounding and sixth in steals. Both Olivia Russell and Lawrence and tied for eighth in blocks per game.
 
BRAND NEW WATERS
• The Lions are in the first season in NCAA Division I and the Southland Conference.
• This is the first time the Lions are changing conferences for the first time in program history.
 
TOUGH SLATE TO START 2022-23
• During the non-conference portion of the schedule, the Lions have played five teams that either played in the NCAA Tournament, WNIT, or Women's Basketball Invitational last season. 
 
6-0 IN CONFERENCE PLAY
• For the first time since 2019-20, the Lions are 6-0 in conference play.
• That season, the Lions advanced all the way to the conference tournament championship game and made the NCAA Division II Tournament.
 
KERNAL NAMED SOUTHLAND PLAYER OF THE WEEK
• DesiRay Kernal earned this week's Southland Conference Player of the Week award after averaging 17 points per game and eight rebounds in the two games.
• It is the third weekly honor for the Lions this season and second of Kernal's career.
 
DOWN, BUT NOT OUT
• The Lions trailed by 15 points in Thursday's game, but came back to win it over New Orleans.
• The come-from-behind win is the largest of this season and largest since a 16-point deficit they fought back from last season at Ouachita Baptist on 11/19/21.
 
FIRST DI ROAD WIN
• The win at McNeese was the first road win for the Lions away from the Field House as a Division I member, they were 0-7 in true road games and 0-9 in games away from home prior to that.
 
AMONG THE BEST IN THE SLC
• The Lions are first in the Southland in scoring (67.2), second in rebounding (39.1), and second in blocks per game (3.2).
• DesiRay Kernal is fourth in rebounding (7.3), and Laila Lawrence is third in field goal percentage (51.0) and 10th in rebounding (5.9).
• Kernal is also averaging 1.8 steals per game, which is sixth in the conference.
• Olivia Russell is seventh with 0.9 blocks per game.
 
ROBINSON EARNS SECOND SLC PLAYER OF THE WEEK AWARD
• Dyani Robinson picked up her second Southland Player of the Week award on December 12 after scoring over 20 points in the games against Mississippi State and Idaho.
• She also earned the SLC Player of the Week award after the first week of the season.
 
ROBINSON SCORES 29 AGAINST THE COWGIRLS
• Robinson totaled 29 points in the win over McNeese, which are the most points for a Lions since she scored 29 against Midwestern State on 2/2/21.
• The Lions' last 30-point scorer was Chania Wright on 1/4/20.
 
ROBINSON MOVES TO ON THIRD ON ALL-TIME SCORING LIST
• Dyani Robinson surpassed current Lion assistant coach and former great, Princess Davis for third on the all-time scoring list against Lamar.
• Davis scored 1,385 points in her career.
 
KERNAL REACHED 1,000 CAREER POINTS
• DesiRay Kernal needed four more points to reach the 1,000 career points plateau, and she scored four points early in the first quarter against Nicholls to achieve that feat. 
• Kernal is the 16th player in program history to achieve that feat.
 
A RARE FEAT IN STARKVILLE
• Despite the lopsided loss against Mississippi State, the Lions had an impressive effort on the road.
• Coming into the game, the Bulldogs were allowing 50.3 points per game, which was seventh in the country. The Lions scored 53 points.
• Only one player had scored 20 or more points against the Bulldogs all season prior to December 11. Dyani Robinson scored 20 to add to the list.
 
ENDED ON A HIGH NOTE
• The Lions ended their Division II era with four straight NCAA Tournament appearances and won a NCAA Tournament game in each of the last two seasons.
• A&M-Commerce has five postseason appearances in program history, with four coming in the last four seasons.
• The Lions were ranked as high as No. 1 in the D2SIDA rankings and No. 2 in the WBCA rankings last season.
 
HE'S DONE THIS ONCE OR TWICE
• Coach Jason Burton is in his second stint in the Southland Conference.
• Burton was an assistant coach at Texas State from 2011-13 on the men's side.
Burton gets win No. 150
• Coach Jason Burton, who is the Lions' all-time wins leaders, secured his 150th career win on 2/12/22 at UT Tyler.
 
ALL-CONFERENCE RECOGNITION
• Dyani Robinson was named the LSC Player of the Year, she is among four all-LSC honors last season
• Laila Lawrence earned Sixth Woman of the Year award, while also being named to the All Freshman team and All-LSC Third Team
• DesiRay Kernal was named to the second team and former Lions Chania Wright was named to the third team.
 
CONFERENCE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
• Dyani Robinson was the third LSC Player of the Year in program history, joining Britney Jordan and Kanani Marshall.
 
CHASED 20 WINS
• A win on 2/12/22 against UT Tyler gave the Lions 20 wins for the fifth time in program history.
• The previous 20 win seasons came in 2006-07, 2016-17, 2018-19, 2019-20.
 
ROBINSON REACHES 1K MARK
• Dyani Robinson reached the 1,000 career points mark last season.
 
STARTING OUT STRONG
• A&M-Commerce's 11-0 start to last season was the second time in three seasons that the Lions started 11-0 or better.
 
40 UNDER 40
• Coach Jason Burton was named to Dave Campbell's Texas Basketball's 40 Under 40 list last season. The all-time wins leader in his ninth year the helm of the Lion Women's basketball program.
 
A&M-COMMERCE OFFICIALLY JOINS NCAA DIVISION I AND THE SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE
• After 90 successful years as charter members of the Lone Star Conference, the Lions begin a historic transition to NCAA Division I and the Southland Conference. This is the first time the Lions are changing conferences since 1931.
• The Lions are eligible to win the Soutland Conference, though they are not eligible for the NCAA Tournament during the four-year transition period.
• Winners  of the NAIA National Championship in 1954-55.
• Founded in 1889, A&M-Commerce serves rural and urban Northeast Texas with distinction, consistently delivering on a promise that founder Professor William Leonidas Mayo made more than a century ago: "No industrious, ambitious youth shall be denied an education if I can prevent it."  To this day, the institution remains committed to its core mission: "Educate. Discover. Achieve."
• Formerly known as East Texas State University, the 2,100-acre Commerce campus provides many opportunities for students to learn and grow. The university offers more than 135 degree programs at the bachelor's, masters and doctoral levels. A vibrant student life experience includes 14 competitive NCAA athletic teams, a thriving Greek system and more than 120 student organizations. Programs are delivered on site at the Commerce campus as well as in Dallas, Frisco, McKinney, Mesquite and Corsicana. A robust online academic menu of classes is also a point of distinction, and U.S. News & World Report has ranked several programs at Texas A&M University-Commerce among the best in the nation for 2021.
• A member of The Texas A&M University System since 1996, the institution provides quality education to an inclusive community of diverse learners as one of the most affordable universities in East Texas.  Students work with world-class professors who dedicate themselves to excellence in teaching and research. The university maintains strong relationships with local industries to create relevant academic programs and valuable internship and networking opportunities that prepare career ready graduates.
• Serving nearly 12,000 students, Texas A&M-Commerce is a leader in competency-based education, and is the nation's first institution to offer an accredited competency-based bachelor's degree in criminal justice and organizational leadership. The agriculture program is also a national stand-out, featuring one of the only programs where students grow their own experimental crops on the university's 1,500-acre farm. In addition, A&M-Commerce upholds a 130-year legacy as an exceptional teachers' college, graduating more than 400 certified educators in 2019. In 2020, the university opened the 113,470-square-foot Nursing and Health Sciences Building, featuring a state-of-the-art simulation hospital.
 
SOUTHLAND MEMBERS IN 2022-23

Institution	Offers Women's Basketball?
A&M-COMMERCE	YES
Houston Christian	Yes
Incarnate Word	Yes
Lamar	Yes
McNeese State	Yes
New Orleans	Yes
Nicholls State	Yes
Northwestern State	Yes
Southeastern Louisiana	Yes
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi	Yes