By Drew Ivery | Sports Reporter

A mixture of turnovers and missed shots is what led to the demise of the A&M-Commerce Lions as they fell to the Angelo State Rambelles, 70-64 in the A&M- Commerce Field House on Thursday.

Head Coach Jason Burton and company were looking to start their first win streak this season on Thursday, but those hopes were put to rest by the Rambelles. Angelo State forced the Lions to commit a season-high 20 turnovers and shoot just 20 percent from three point range. The Rambelles came away with 15 steals against the Lions which resulted in twenty-five points from turnovers.

The Lions were still able to come away with some positives in this games as Agang Tac got a career-high 17 rebounds, which gave A&M-Commerce the big edge in the rebound battle as they outrebounded Angelo State fifty to thirty-five. Lots of production came from the Lion bench as they combined to score 23 points off the bench compared to the Rambelles eleven. The dominance on the glass led to many second chance opportunities and the Lions came away with 18 second chance points. The Lions also came away with 36 points in the paint, which was just four more than the Rambelles.

Senior guard Princess Davis led the Lions in scoring with 21 points, but unfortunately was the cause of many Lion turnovers as she gave it away or had it stolen eight times by Angelo State. At no point in the game did the Lions take the lead, primarily due to ten first half turnovers from which they could never recover.

This was the 73^rd meeting between the two teams and with the win the Rambelles improved their all-time record against the Lions to 47-26 and A&M-Commerce is now just below .500 at 4-5 in the Burton era.

Head Coach for the Rambelles, Renae Shippey, last year in her first season led the team to a 16-4 Lone Star Conference record which tied them for first in the LSC standings. The Rambelles lost in round one of the LSC tournament to Tarleton, but still managed to clinch an NCAA tournament berth. Angelo State made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament before losing to eventual Regional Champion Lubbock Christian. After splitting the season series last year, this now gives the Angelo State Rambelles back-to-back wins against A&M-Commerce after the Lions had won the previous two meetings.

The Rambelles were led in scoring by last years LSC Player of the Year, Marquita Daniels, who scored 23 points as well as grabbed five rebounds and disrupted passing lanes by bringing in seven steals. She had help on the scoring end from a pair of teammates who scored in double digits, starting with last years Defensive Player of the Year De’Anira Moore who added 11 points and Asia Davis with ten.

Next Matchup: The Lions stay in town for yet another Conference game as they will play Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Location is the Commerce Field House beginning at 2 p.m. on Holiday Merchants Day. The game can be heard on www.ketr.org or 88.9 FM, the Lions Sports Network.