FRISCO – The fourth-seeded Texas A&M University-Commerce men's basketball team were unable to climb out of a double-digit deficit in a 73-63 loss to top-seeded West Texas A&M University in the Lone Star Conference Championship semifinal at Dr Pepper Arena on Saturday.
 
The Lions are now 21-8 overall and will await their NCAA Division II National Championship fate. The tournament field will be announced at 9:30 p.m. Sunday. The team will have a watching party for the selection show at Luigi’s Italian Café in Commerce, starting at 9:15 p.m. West Texas A&M advances to the LSC Championship final with a 27-3 record.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Reggie Reid led all scorers with 26 points on 9-of-18 shooting from the floor, also pulling down five rebounds, and passing out four assists.

- Willie Rooks was the only other Lion in double figures with 11 points scored.

- The Lions shot 38.7 percent (24-of-62) from the floor and were limited to a 16.0 percent (4-of-25) rate from three-point distance.

- West Texas outrebounded the Lions 46-33 and had four double digit scorers.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

Both teams shot under 40 percent in a tightly played first 20 minutes of the game. Neither team was able to pull out to a lead of more than two possessions. Conrod opened the scoring with a layup. After four Buff points, a Reid layup and Rooks triple put the Lions up by three with 15 minutes to play in the period.
 
WT went on a 7-0 run to switch the lead, as the Lions went on a four-minute scoring drought. A five-point Lion run tied the game up at 16-all, as A&M-Commerce held the tournament's top seed off of the scoreboard for four and a half minutes. The teams traded four-point mini-runs in the final five minutes and the Lions held a two-point edge going into the half's final possession, but WT's Ryan Quaid hit a buzzer-beating three-pointer to give the Buffs a 25-24 halftime edge.
 
There were six ties and seven lead changes in the half and the Lions took advantage of eight offensive rebounds, converting them into eight second chance points.
 
The Lions took the lead on an Armstrong three-pointer to make it 28-27 with 17:46 on the clock, but the Buffs went on a nine-point surge as the Lions missed four straight shots. WT pushed the lead to nine, when the Lions went on a 7-2 run. A Srdan Budimir layup at the 10-minute mark cut the Buff lead to 41-37.
 
A&M-Commerce had held West Texas off the board for nearly five minutes before a sizeable Buffalo run. WT scored 10 straight points and went out to a 51-37 advantage with just under eight minutes to play.
 
The Lions went on a 8-2 surge over the next three minutes to cut the deficit down to single digits, and a Rooks triple cut the lead down to seven points at 55-48 with four and a half minutes on the clock. WT pushed back out to a 14-point lead as David Chavlovich scored 10 straight for WT.
 
A&M-Commerce was able to cut the lead down to 10 points at 71-61 in the final minute on a Reid three-pointer, but the Lions were unable to stage a last gasp comeback effort.