Well, it is time for the Ladies.

With a 13-15 record overall and 8-10 conference record, the A&M-Commerce Women’s team is looking to make another solid showing in the tournament, much like they did last year, but last year has a lot of differences from now. A new coach, a new staff, and many new players. Let’s take a look at how the Southland Conference bracket looks.

First Seeded Lamar-Auto Bid to the Conference Semifinals

Second Seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi-Auto bid to the Conference Semifinals

Third seeded Southeastern Louisiana-First round bye, auto bid to conference quarterfinals

Fourth Seeded Incarnate Word-First round Bye, auto bid to the conference quarterfinals

Fifth Seeded Texas A&M-Commerce VS. Eight Seeded Northwestern State

Sixth Seeded New Orleans Vs Seventh Seeded Nicholls

Let’s take a look at the Lion Women’s projected matchups-

Like their male counterparts, they Lion Women face Northwestern State. The first matchup was a 3 point win for the Lady Demons but the Lion Women avenged that loss just a few days ago in Commerce with a 69-58 win. In the second game, it was a strong third quarter and break even fourth that broke the Lady Demons back and got the Lion women a huge win. The first game was tale of two halves as the Lion Women fell behind going into the half but had a great second half, but fell 3 points short. Two teams that seem evenly matched, but if the Lion Women don’t fall behind early, I feel like this game tilts toward the Lions and they will advance to the quarterfinals.

In the quarters, the Lion Women would face Incarnate Word. Both games were single digit close wins for Incarnate Word that all came down to one thing-the Lady Cardinals had one quarter where they simply blew out the Lion Women both times. When you beat an opponent by the same margin twice, that means something is bound to be working correctly and in the case of the Lion Women, you KNOW what you cannot do against UIW, which is fall behind. Playing from behind is something few teams can consistently come back from. If the Lion Women get this far, they must NOT fall behind early.

If the Lion Women can overcome their UIW curse, they will face a team they defeated on the road, and that is top ranked Lamar. In their first game, the Lion Women notched a huge 73-70 win over the Cardinals and things looked very good for the Lion Women. The big difference between the two games was that in the first game, both teams had a lot of offense in the first game, but in the second game, only 7 players scored for the Lion Women while 10 scored for the Cardinals, including 2 in double figures. This game is winnable if the Lion Women get that far, but they MUST make sure they bring their offense with them. If they do advance to this round and bring their offense, you could easily see win # 16.

Again, a big if, but if somehow the Lion Women advance to the Championship game, I don’t see how they don’t meet up with TAMU-Corpus Christi. In the lower half of the bracket I see New Orleans beating Nicholls, Incarnate Word beating Nicholls, and TAMU-Corpus Christi defeating Incarnate Word. Again, when these two teams played, it was a tale of two halves. In game one in Commerce, the Lion Women had the Lady Islanders easily within striking distance, but a horrible fourth quarter sunk the Lion women in a 69-58 Loss. The second meeting was the same deal but it was a poor performance in the first quarter that sunk the Lion Women. If you look at the box scores, the Lion Women either led or matched the Lady Islanders in 6 of the 8 quarters they have played against each other. It was just one bad quarter in each game that did away with their chance to take home wins.

For Valerie King, I am excited to see how she and her team performs in her first conference tournament as a head coach. I am excited to see if they can break the season tie against Northwestern, learn to overcome falling behind early, play two way basketball, and play all 4 quarters with as much intensity and execution as possible.

Tomorrow at 11 AM will give us a chance to see if any of that is going to happen.