SAN ANTONIO – After falling behind by 14 points early, the Texas A&M University-Commerce women's basketball team stormed back to take a lead in the second half, ultimately, the UIW Cardinals picked up a 72-61 win at the McDermott Center on Thursday night.
 
The Lions fall to 6-7 in Southland Conference play and 11-12 overall. UIW takes both meetings over A&M-Commerce this season, now holding the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Cardinals are 14-9 overall and 7-5 in conference play, for fourth place in the SLC standings.
 
Mary Delgado (Miami, Fla.) scored seven of the first 10 points for the Lions, who started the game trailing 21-7 in the first quarter. UIW was led by 10 points in the first quarter on 4 for 5 shooting, including two from the distance, by Jorja Elliott.
 
Delgado went 3 for 4 from the field with a three pointer in the first quarter, while the rest of the Lions went 1 for 9. Cora Horvath (Obertwart, Austria) scored the only other points for the Lions in the first quarter. A&M-Commerce did not score a point for the final 2:01 of the first quarter.
 
The Lions scored the first seven points of the second quarter, including five from Jordyn Newsome (Irving – MacArthur) as UIW missed six shots in a row and was scoreless for the first 3:54 of the quarter. A&M-Commerce outscored UIW 18-8 in the second quarter to make it a two-point game at the half. The Lions shot 7 for 17 in the second quarter, while UIW shot 3 for 19.
 
Newsome and Ahmya Boyce (Newport News, Va.) had five points each in the second quarter, both hitting a three-pointer each. After 10 points in the first quarter, Elliott was scoreless in the second half.
 
To start the second half, the Lions scored four of the first six points of the game to tie the game at 32, which was the first time the game was tied since 3-3 to start the game. Horvath drilled a jumper at the 7:40 mark, her fourth point of the third quarter, to give A&M-Commerce a 34-32 lead, its first in the game.
 
The Lions started the third quarter shooting 3 for 3, while the Cardinals shot 1 for 3. After falling behind the first time all night, the Cardinals used a 10-0 run to retake an eight-point lead. During that stretch, the Lions shot 0 for 5.
 
Newsome ended the scoring drought with a tough layup. Right before the buzzer, Olivia Russell (Auburn Hills, Mich.) drilled a three-pointer to make it a 51-48 game after three quarters. A&M-Commerce shot 53 percent in the third quarter, while UIW shot 46.7 percent.
 
After just one tie and no lead changes in the first half, which was at 3-3, there were four lead changes and two ties in the third quarter. 
 
The Cardinals started the fourth quarter with four straight points, but the Lions answered with four in a row, all coming from Newsome, forcing the Cardinals to use a timeout.
 
Coming out of the timeout, the Lions made two consecutive stops on the defensive side and a layup from Boyce made it a one-point lead for UIW, who responded with another 9-0 run to re-take a 10-point lead. UIW scored 17 of the final 24 points of the game as the Lions were limited to just nine points in the final seven minutes of the game.
 
Delgado finished the game with 21 points, four rebounds, three assists, three steals, and a block, in her first game back in the starting lineup since January 13. Newsome added 11 points and four rebounds, while Boyce scored 10 with four rebounds.
 
Horvath tallied nine points and Jordyn Beaty (Woodville) grabbed seven rebounds in her first career start, but picked up four early fouls, limiting her to 15 minutes played.
 
For the Cardinals, Elliott scored 25, while Nina De Leon Negron added 16 points with 12 rebounds, while Myra Bell recorded 15 points and seven points. UIW had the 46-34 edge in total rebounds, 17-9 advantage in offensive rebounds, and 15-5 advantage in second chance points.

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The Lions remain on the road on Saturday, playing at A&M-Corpus Christi at 1 p.m.