As usual, a lot to get to.

Women’s Hoops

Congrats to Lion Women’s Hooper Princess Davis who became the all time program leader in minutes played as Jason Burton’s squad pushed their record to 15-7 overall and 10-4 in LSC play with two big wins against Cameron, hammering the Aggies during the annual Greek Night game in Commerce 91-58, followed by a 73-61 win over Midwestern State. HC Jason Burton talked about how his squad is playing like an NCAA Tournament quality team and that his group just needs to continue doing what they are doing to get there. Things get no easier as the Ladies face Tarleton State Tuesday night in Stephenville  followed by a trip to Denton to face Texas Women’s. The Lions have defeated both earlier in the year.

2018-19 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL STANDINGS

Men’s Hoops-

The Men also had a successful week as they took down Cameron 87-78 and then hammered Midwestern State 89-63 to push their record to 18-5 overall and 10-3 in LSC play. The Men are still in the thick of the hunt for an LSC regular season title, but a tough stretch awaits, including the two teams the Lions have yet to beat in the LSC, West Texas A&M and Western New Mexico. Right now, it looks like West Texas A&M is the team to beat. The Lions need the Buffs to drop a game, win out, and defeat WT on the 23rd when they visit Commerce.

2018-19 MEN’S BASKETBALL STANDINGS

Softball-

The Softball team continued their early season success by notching their record to 7-1 overall, but it was Mother Nature that stopped them from notching more wins as the final 3 games of the St. Mary’s Tournament was cancelled. The Lions open up the home season the 13th against 20th ranked Arkansas Tech followed by a set of Double Headers against Midwestern State and Texas A&M-International, all at the Cain Complex in Commerce.

Volleyball-

With the departure of Sarah Carthel as assistant Head Volleyball Coach, the Lions announced this past week her replacement, Lauren Flowers. Here is the skinny on the new assistant in town per Lionathletics.com –

 “We are thrilled to add Lauren to our coaching staff,” Case said. “She is a highly-respected assistant coach in our region and league, and I think she will have an immediate impact on our program. Her familiarity with our league and regional opponents is an instant benefit. She already knows how to win on the court and in recruiting against those opponents. With where we are trying to take our program, that type of experience is critical when hiring an assistant.”
 
Flowers comes to the Lions after spending two seasons as an assistant coach at fellow Lone Star Conference affiliate UT Permian Basin. During the 2018 season, Flowers helped the Falcons to the biggest turnaround in program history. The team qualified for the LSC Tournament for the first time and made its first playoff appearance since the 2011 season. The team was able to defeat a nationally-ranked opponent for the first time in program history. During her first season at UTPB, Flowers was instrumental in the team’s recruiting efforts, which helped lead to the 2018 season turnaround, including recruiting a junior college All-American and a future First Team All-Conference player.
 
Prior to her time at UTPB, Flowers served as an assistant coach for two seasons at Western New Mexico under head coach Jim Callender. During WNMU’s first season in the LSC in 2016, Flowers helped coach LSC Defensive Player of the Year and All-Region selection Shannon Rich as the Mustangs qualified for the LSC Tournament. Two Mustangs were selected as All-Conference and All-Academic players. In her first season at WNMU, Flowers helped the Mustangs finish second in the RMAC standings as the team narrowly missed a berth into the NCAA Tournament. Flowers helped coach the top hitting team in the RMAC with four All-Conference players as Callender went on to be named RMAC Coach of the Year. Flowers began her coaching career at Bethany High School in Bethany, Okla.
 
“I’m thrilled and honored to be joining Lion Volleyball,” Flowers said. “The ‘Best in Class’ experience was extremely apparent from the moment I stepped on campus. I’d like to thank everyone I met during the hiring process to make me and my family feel welcome. I’m excited to get to work and continue building upon a strong foundation set by Coach Case and Coach Carthel.”
 
Prior to her coaching career, Flowers played at Azuza Pacific, where she helped the Cougars finish fifth overall in the 2011 NAIA National Tournament. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies in 2014.

Welcome to Lion Nation Lauren, we hope you like it here, stay long, and prosper.

Track-

Another Indoor Meet in the books at Pitt State, but this weekend, comes the big meet, the Indoor Season LSC Championships hosted by West Texas A&M at Texas Tech’s indoor facility. The Men are looking to take home another LSC title and the Women are looking to notch their first Indoor title ever. Both teams looked loaded and primed to do so. Follow the results via the Lion Wire’s Facebook page and we will load real time stats on the site as well.

Football-

Russell McLean has been putting together a notebook of our entire new high school signed class and looks to have that published sometime this week, also Billy Minor will be featuring a true playmaker that signed with the Lions and he will be featured as one of our “Class Jams” in his regular Column Minor Thoughts, so be on the lookout for that.

Just finally, I wanted to once again send our love and thoughts to the Wilson family. Only Russell was able to attend the Funeral, but please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers as they are transitioning to a difficult time.

Rest well # 12 of Old ET.  you have earned your rest.