The No. 18 Texas A&M University-Commerce women’s basketball team came away with two hard-fought victories over their Lone Star Conference rivals Angelo State University Saturday and Sunday afternoon in the Junell Center.

Saturday afternoon, the Lions, who had last played on Jan. 19 due to postponed games, started slow and were tied at 51 with the Rambelles going into the fourth quarter. 

“Coming off a road trip like we did and coming out of quarantine, our team was a little fatigued and mentally drained and we started off kind of slow and picked it up at the end,” associate head coach Markeith Brown said.

The Lions rallied late behind dominant performances from sophomores DesiRay Kernal, Dyani Robinson and redshirt freshman Asiyha Smith. A&M Commerce managed to break the deadlock and put up 30 fourth-quarter points which led to an 81-76 victory.

The win snaps the Lions’ four-game losing streak in San Angelo that spanned back to 2015. The win was also only the team’s second in the Junell Center’s 19-year history.

In the Sunday matchup, Dyani Robinson led all scorers with 22 points, Juliana Louis 

posted a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds and DesiRay Kernal racked up a key three-pointer and free throws in the game’s final minutes, which proved to be instrumental in the Lions’ 71-66 victory. 

“We’re confident in what we do, and we know basketball is a game of runs. We knew they would make a run at us. But we were diligent, stuck to the game plan and prevailed,” Brown said.

With the pair of away wins over the weekend, the A&M-Commerce women’s basketball team have now bolstered their position atop the Lone Star Conference standings and remain as one of only two teams in the LSC that have yet to suffer a defeat in conference play.