ABILENE, Texas – A late overtime basket was the undoing for McMurry University women's basketball in its season opener, falling in overtime to Texas A&M University-Commerce, 82-80, at Kimbrell Arena before a crowd of 319.
 
TAMUC's Princess Davis made good on a driving layup with two seconds left in the OT segment to break the 80-80 deadlock and give the Lions (1-0) the victory over the War Hawks (0-1).
 
McM came back from an early five-point deficit, trailing 26-21 with 6:38 left in the first half. But the War Hawks would out-score TAMUC 21-3 heading into the halftime locker room. Tayler Boroson's jumper in the waning seconds of the opening stanza gave McM what would be its largest lead of the night, 42-29, at the break.
 
The Lions began to chip away at McMurry's advantage to open the second half of action. By the 8:59 juncture of the second stanza, TAMUC had knotted the game at 53-53, thanks to a 24-11 run by the guests during that span.
 
But interim head coach William Milton's team was not about to go quietly in his debut as the team's mentor. As a matter-of-fact, the War Hawks and Lions slugged it out for most of the remaining time in regulation, with neither able to create any distance. A pair of free throws by Payton Billue gave McM a three-point lead with just 10 seconds left in regulation.
 
TAMUC's Natalie Hessong (9 points) had to drain a three-pointer as regulation drew to a close just to force overtime, 69-69.
 
Boroson's free throws with under a minute to play in OT put the War Hawks on top, 80-78.  But a Davis layup with 41 tics left on the game clock tied the game for the 15th time, before her winning bucket a few moments later.
 
Three War Hawks finished the day with double-digit scoring, led by 16 from Adijatu Disu. Disu made a living at the charity stripe, going 10-for-13. She also grabbed nine rebounds.
 
Taylor Neal had a double-double of 15 points and 12 rebounds. Haley Welch added 14 points. Taylor Russell and Mishae Roper each had nine points. Russell matched her scoring with nine boards, while Roper contributed three blocked shots.
 
The War Hawks will travel to Colorado on a three-game road trip from Nov 19-22, taking on Adams State, Colorado School of Mines and Regis College on the road swing.