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The return of Vinyl

As new ways of listening to music (for free and otherwise) continue to emerge in the current musi-cal landscape of the world, legacy media like CDs and even iTunes continue to whittle away in ver-satility and widespread use. Even so, vinyl sales have continued to increase and are becoming a staple in collge dorm rooms across the nation. What could possibly be ac-countable for the rise of one of the oldest form of music listening still available? Editor Andrew Burnes, a newfound vinyl owner, gives his take on the matter.

PAGE 6

Our Only Hope?

Despite the misconception spun by pundits in the mainstream media in addition to Democratic party higher-ups, recent polls sug-gest that Hillary Clinton would either outright lose or fall within the margin of error if she were to go up against any of the remain-ing Republicans up for nomina-tion while Bernie Sanders would be victorious against all of them. Editor Andrew Burnes presents the case that the #BernieOrBust movement may be a reality and that a Clinton nomination could result in a Trump presidency.

PAGE 2

A&M-Commerce professors prepare to

take students to Sweden

Drs. Villanueva-Russell and Ta-betha Adkins will lead an expe-dition with to Sweden to give A&M-Commerce students the op-portunity to compare Healthcare systems between countries.

PAGE 5

Flashing Lights

Joseph AldermanNews Editor

A gunshot. A text message. A phone call. An email. An eventual all clear. For students of Texas A&M University – Commerce, this is becoming an increasingly familiar pattern of events indicative of violence in the area surrounding the campus, but is this perception accurate?

Concerns about the safety of Commerce have spread in recent months, as multiple incidents of drive-by shootings, armed robberies, assaults, and most recently the discovery of a methamphet-amines lab, have occurred since the beginning of this school year. 9e majority of these crimes have occurred within mere blocks of the Texas A&M – Commerce campus, and while some students may feel uneasy about this, sophomore KaiCierra Ed-wards lives nearby to many of these incidents and does not feel that panic is justi:ed.

“When I worked the night shift and had to walk home on occasion I felt completely comfortable,” Edwards said. “I am aware of the crime that has taken place, but crime happens everywhere and I feel the police have it under control.”

While Commerce police were unable to provide con:rmed crime statistics for the city, www.city-data.com provides crime statistics through 2013 for

the city of Commerce. According to their reports, since 2006, Commerce has an average violent crime rate of 263.2 compared to the US average of 233.3. Despite a spike in 2012, assaults in the city of Commerce have seen a fair decline in the last decade, with 12 in 2013 compared to 46 in 2007. Burglaries have also been in decline since that time, although property crimes in Commerce are still well above the US average. However, incidents of rape, despite a 2008 low of 3, have been increasing in this same time, to 9 in 2013.

“Commerce is no more crime ridden than any other city anywhere in the United States,” Alex Su-arez, public information o;cer for the Commerce Police Department, said. “We don’t have a major ‘crime’ problem. […] I’d have to say that reality is that Commerce is normal.”

While there is no fail-safe way to keep from be-ing the victim of a crime, there are some ways that one can help reduce the likelihood.

“I’d have to pin it down to a few things, I CONT. ON PAGE 3

As crime around the A&M-Commerce campus increases, students/cops claim there’s nothing to fear

King’s GambitDelusional international group calls for legalization of rapeImogene Wo!ordManaging Editor

Return of Kings, a U.S. based male group that advocates that men need to take back control of

women, cancelled their international meet up day in 43 di<erent countries.

9e group’s ideas and beliefs are based on “neo-masculinity,” a term that Daryush “Roosh V” Val-izadeh, face and spokesman for Return of Kings,

coined. “Neomasculinity is an ideo-

logical system,” Valizadeh said, “that combines traditional beliefs, masculinity, and animal biology to-gether.”

Valizadeh founded Return of Kings in October 2012. 9e group contains men of all races and back-grounds.

“Before he started Return of Kings, Valizadeh wrote about how to attract women,” Rod Berne, gen-eral writer for the Return of Kings website, said.

“It aims to aid men living where there is a lack of masculinity in males, femininity in females, and objectivity, particularly dealing with beauty ideals and human behavior,” he said.

“Return of Kings is a safe place where heterosexual, masculine men can express how they don’t agree with the direction that Western culture is headed,” Valizadeh said, “feminists, homosexuals, and women are strong-ly discouraged from contributing to this community.”

9e meet up day, scheduled for Feb. 6, would have held 165 events in the di<erent countries at 8pm. Each meeting would be hosted by di<er-ent members. 9e meeting hosted by Valizadeh would be in Washington, DC.

Valizadeh instructed the men to

locate a fellow member by using the phrases, “Do you know where I can :nd a pet shop?” and “yes, it’s right here.”

9e members then would have to wait from 8:00-8:20p.m. at the meeting location. After the members were acquainted they were able to pro-

ceed to the :nal location, where the actual meet up was to take place.

To ensure the secrecy of the meet ups, Valiza-deh changed more than twelve of the designated meeting areas, and sent out a list of all the meet-ing locations, as well as the meeting protocol and directions, to the members through their member-ship accounts.

“If accosted during the meet up, move to the :nal venue in pairs or triplets,” Valizadeh said, “us-ing an indirect route so that the :nal meeting

CONT. ON PAGE 5

Daryush Valizadeh (otherwise known as Roosh V) is the leader of the Return of Kings, an international group with a foothold in over 40 countries. Their mission: the legalization of rape.

“Neomasculinity is an ideological system that combines traditional beliefs, masculinity, and animal biology together.”

- Daryush ValizadehThe leader of The Return

of Kings

EDITORIAL CARTOON COURTESY/JOSEPH ALDERMAN

T!" E#$% T"&#' S%#((The East Texan, official student newspaper

of Texas A&M University-Commerce, is pub-

lished 11 times per semester during the Fall

and Spring by students including journal-

ism students in reporting classes. Content

is solely the responsibility of the student

staff and writers. The comments and views

expressed in The East Texan, in print or on-

line, do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of

other students, staff, faculty, administration,

or the Board of Trustees. The East Texan is

located in Room 113 of the Journalism Build-

ing. Single copies of The East Texan are free,

additional copies are available in The East

Texan offices for an additional 25 cents each.

Letters to the Texan are welcomed and should

be limited to 350 words. They may be edited for

spelling, grammar and libelous and malicious

statements. The East Texan reserves the right

to refuse publication. Letters should be typed

or emailed, must include a valid signature and

contact information, and can be sent to theeast-

texan@gmail.com or PO Box 4104, Texas A&M

University-Commerce, Commerce, TX 75428.

Letters to

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F!". #$, #%&'P()! 2

What does Black Lives Ma!er mean to you?

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Editor Andrew BurnesManaging Editor Travis HairgroveNews/Social Media Editor Joseph AldermanSports Writer Carter LacyOpinion Editor Hunter KimbleStudent Life Editor Alissa SilvaLead Reporter ToddPhotographer Kristen TaylorPhotographer Aaron HwangCopy Editor Kyria AhoDistribution Manager Sean BatesDistribution Assistant Michelle WhiteheadFaculty Adviser Fred StewartPhone 903-886-5985E-mail theeasttexan@gmail.comEast Texan Website tamuceasttexan.comEast Texan Print Issue Online issuu.com/tamuc.easttexan

Our nation’s only hope?

“It’s just for equality. I try to stay out of everything as much as possible, so I just like to watch and observe and learn from it as much as I can.” -Brenna Travis

“I see it as a movement just to get more awareness across the United States. *ere is still racial pro+ling here. I think it’s something that needs to be talked about and the more it is talked about, the more we can +x it.” -Chandler Hollowell

“It’s changing people’s perception, so it’s changing all lives in general. I think that it’s touching more people than which it was originally anticipated. Right now, it’s a national movement. It touches more than the people we think that is impacted. I mean it touches me and I follow it every night with pride.” -Tina Livingston

Andrew BurnesEditor

From plans to track Muslims like Jews in Nazi Germany to wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on walls “with a big door in the middle,” to calling the Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage the “darkest day in our country’s history” to claiming that the Egyptian pyramids are secretly stores of grain, the current lineup of Republican candidates are, without a doubt, the worst in American history. And that, my friends, is saying something. Countries around the world are looking on in bewilderment, horror, and fear that Americans might actually be stupid enough to elect Donald Trump as president (*e British Parliament actually debated on their ,oor whether they should ban him from their country). But judging from some of the issues highlighted above, who can be sure that he’s even the worse the GOP has to o-er? A candidacy from any one of those men (save perhaps Ohio governor John Kasich who at least seems to have retained some sense of sanity, but is also one of the longest shots to win this thing) would not only give us the worst president in the history of our nation, with nuclear weapons at the ready and an incredibly dangerous, blindfolded stance on climate change, it could potentially spell doom for the world that we are preparing to take over as the next generation.

For months, I was under the impression that a Democratic victory in November is not only a necessity, it’s a given. Considering what’s at stake, I couldn’t imagine that there would be enough stupidity in the country to elect one of these mad doctors of insanity and Christianity. But I had underestimated one thing, something that could create one of the biggest problems in the history of America: the amount of hatred that so many around the country share for Hillary Clinton.

Is Clinton really the worst person to ever run for the position for president? Judging from the opposing +eld, the answer is obviously no. Backed by the media, a rigged DNC election process, and countless millionaires, billionaires and corporations, up until a couple of months ago, it seemed like her coronation atop the Democratic Party was all but a certainty. Even today, as the DNC rolls back regulations on contributions from lobbyists to help give her the edge in addition to granting her an automatic near-15 percent of the vote that she needs to become the party nominee through the ungodly superdelegate process, her victory is more than likely on track to become a reality. *e reasoning behind this groundswell of establishment support? *e common thinking is she has the best chance of beating the potentially planet-ending GOP nominee.

Unfortunately, due to a combination of controversy, frustration, hatred,

her own condescending personality, and an opponent that is simply better than her in nearly every conceivable way, this thinking that she is the inevitable 46th president of *e United States of America is no longer backed up by the numbers and facts, and it could mean the end of the world as we know it.

In the latest Quinnipiac poll, Hillary Clinton is within the margin of error or losing to every single Republican left in the GOP +eld. *at means from Donald Trump on down to Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and even Jeb Bush, at this point in the electorate according to this nationwide

poll, Hillary would lose to every single one of them. Considering the talking points that the mainstream media, pundits, and party establishment have been shoving down our throats for the past year, this is not only shocking, it’s disturbing as hell.

But there is a silver lining; a glimmer of hope peeking through the clouds of fear and disdain that could be the savior for all of us: a Democratic Socialist

74-year-old former Jew from the state of Vermont that has fought against the establishment for the bene+t of the downtrodden, the disenfranchised, and the underdogs across the country for the past half a century. And like most things in our world, it’s been our generation, the

one that’s almost universally hated by the out-of-touch baby boomers that have nothing left to lose in the Hell-in-a-handbasket world that we now have to inherit, that has been the one that +gured it out before everyone else.

We need Bernie Sanders to become the Democratic nominee not only because of what he stands for, not only because he could be the man to end the morally reprehensible and corrupt campaign +nance system that people like Justice Scalia created, not only because he’s the only candidate that is working for all of us just as he has his entire life, but because he may be our last, best hope for the future of our country. Because here’s the reality: in that same poll that showed Hillary Clinton losing or tying radicals like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, Bernie Sanders beats all of them. And in many cases, it’s by a landslide. He’s the only candidate in the 2016 race with a positive approval rating. He’s the only candidate that has a track record of bipartisanship. He’s the only candidate willing to sit down with a man like Killer Mike in a barber shop to talk about the issues of the day. And if the numbers stay like they are, he may be our

Hannah ClarkSta- Writer

Last Sunday morning I woke up feeling alone, I caught myself wanting someone there I could spend my morning with. I could have sat there pouting and wishing I had a signi+cant other to spend that time with, but then I had a realization.

I realized I didn’t need someone next to me. I did the exact same thing I would have done with or without some one. I got up, made myself a great breakfast, put on workout clothes and started my day.

I know when you are in college you think you know everything. You want to have that perfect relationship with your perfect person. If you are in a relationship I am so happy for you. Unfortunately, for myself, I have not found that person among other millions of people.

I think that is what people are missing; you are not alone in being alone.

*is is the problem with thinking you need someone else to complete you. If you always want to be with someone else, when do you want to be by yourself? You have to learn who you are, your goals and what you want before you can focus your energy on another.

Many people have told me this “but why can’t it be me?” Maybe, just maybe, you aren’t ready.

I know this is cliché, but I have found it to be true, once you stop looking, your person +nds you. What they forget to tell you is that you also +nd yourself.

College is that perfect experimenting time. Every experience o-ers a new challenge, you can choose to grow as a person or stay stagnant.

So instead of worrying about who you are going to wake up next to, worry about yourself. You are allowed to be sel+sh.

You are only in college. *ese are the years where you are learning about life and how the world operates. Absorb that knowledge and put it to good use.

Take some time to make yourself better, study for that exam, go workout or maybe just say no every once in awhile. We all have something we want to accomplish so just do it. Do not search for your other half because you are not half.

You are not a half!

“I’m actually more of an “All Lives Matter Person” not just Black lives. Why just focus on Black? I care about everybody not just my own ethnicity.” - Ean Vinson

POLL COURTESY OF THE QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY

P!"# $F#%. &', &()* N!"#

Tameca MinterSpecial Contributor

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, we often tend to spread love to others and delineate ourselves from the equa-tion of full acceptance. I am often amazed at the amount of attention that one might de+ect upon others needs and desires, yet s/he is willing to forgo their own basic needs according Maslow’s hierarchy. Su,ering in silence from an eating disorder or disordered eating is more common than you may think or imagine.

Adding the complexity of college life to the equation of an eating disorder can evoke an emotional overload and become debilitating for individuals predisposed to ED. -oughts of abandonment, lack of understanding and a diabolical desire for perfection or acceptance is a treacherous cycle that one faces in a world of body-shaming and social norms of ideal-ized beauty. A nip here and a tuck there are all that is needed in the fantastical world of achieving an unrealistic standard that never equates to enough.

How magical would our lives be, if in fact, we were enough? In a world were advertising thigh-gaps, slender noses, bleached skin and hair down to one’s waist, and most importantly for our males—a six pack with muscles for miles—do we forget that there is more to a person than an exterior façade emblazoned by a super-imposed fantasy for sale to the highest bidder. We are not chiseled like Ken or Barbie, yet we desire to enhance ourselves beyond the realm of an idealized standard of beauty, earmarked by media and a celebrity status quo.

-e National Eating Disorder Association reports more than 11 million American men and women struggle with eating disorders, but many fail to seek treatment out of shame and/or a lack of support. -e universal adage known to many within the vicious cycle of ED is that eating dis-orders do not discriminate. According to the Centers for Disease Control, it is estimated that 10-15 percent of people diagnosed with anorexia or bulimia are male. Additional-ly, as many as 10 percent of college women su,er from an eating disorder.

Regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation, anyone is susceptible to an eating disorder; in fact, individuals are biologically predisposed to an eating disorder based upon genetics and previous behaviors. Some previous behaviors include 35% of individuals diagnosed with an eating disorder also experienced dependence on alcohol or abuse of other drugs.

In an e,ort to advocate for a positive body image and provide support for those su,ering with ED, recognize the warning signs that may indicate that your friend or loved one has an eating disorder. Remember, the impact of an Eating Disorder a,ects the entire support system which includes: roommates, family members, friends, and educa-tors. Should you have a concern for a friend, roommate, or family member su,ering in silence with an eating disorder, consider intervening by:

-seling Center to seek help.

judgment or any form of condemnation.

Intervention and a positive support system are integral to the overall well-being and quality of life for your loved one, friend or family member. Be aware, avoid self-loathing behaviors and provide a strong system of support. If you are interested in an upcoming screening, then please join the Counseling Center on February 24, 2016, from 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. in the RSC, Atrium.

Intervene when you recognize the following behaviors:

after eating a meal

4-5 days a week

weight, the body, and calorie intake

Additional Resources:National Eating Disorder Awareness: https://www.neda.

orgBinge Eating Disorders Awareness: https://www.beda.

org

Counseling CornerFostering

Awareness in a Sha$ered

World

Commerce ‘not crime-ridden’ says cops

CONT. FROM PAGE 1

would say that they should always be aware

should try to not place themselves in situ-ations where they can make themselves an

More information regarding crime pre-vention and safety tips, as well as how to report a crime, can be found at the city of Commerce’s website, www.commercetx.org.

Much like the city itself, the campus of Texas A&M – Commerce, which is po-liced by the University Police Department, a separate entity from the Commerce Po-lice Department, experiences considerably more property crime than violent crime. -ree rapes were reported on campus in 2014, while the UPD reported 20 on-cam-pus burglaries for the year of 2014, down from 25 in 2013 after a low of only nine in 2012. According to Suarez, though, there are steps one can take to avoid being the victim of burglary.

have seen students or citizens in general walk away from their purses, backpacks or

seconds for someone to walk away from them. Likewise, I’ve seen people get out of their cars and walk into a store leaving the car running or unlocked with valuables in plain view. Valuables should never be left out in the open where they could be seen by someone walk-ing by. A car should never be left running unattended. Always try to walk in pairs especially at night. Common sense things go a long way in not leaving the door

Aggravated assaults have also declined on campus, to two in 2014 from eight in 2013. As is typical of most college campuses, drug and alcohol related violations are by far the most common criminal activ-ity at Texas A&M – Commerce. However, some feel that there are certain aspects of Commerce that make it particularly susceptible to these issues.

said.Another issue that has sparked con-

cern in Commerce students is the recently passed Campus Carry, allowing licensed

gun owners to carry concealed handguns on campus and in buildings. However, guns have rarely been an issue at Texas A&M – Commerce, with only one weap-ons-related arrest having occurred in the

last three years.-

merce has a big issue with handguns and

While Commerce may have a reasonable rate of crime for a city its size, the nearby cities of Green-ville and Quinlan are ranked considerably worse by city-data.com, although Quinlan is a,ect-ed by its low overall population. A number of students commute from these areas, such as senior Rachel Rodriguez.

ins, but there are always cops hanging around my place. In gen-eral, it is pretty seedy… and I am sure there are drug users that use more than weed, but so far I have

While statistics may say one story, the perception of Com-merce and the surrounding area is an issue that university and city leaders may have to confront in the near future if their goal is to establish an increase in students living in Commerce year-round.

Open season?

Last�  semester,�  as�  students�  received�  text�  and�  e-­‐mail�  alerts�  from�  the�  campus�  P.A.W.S.�  system�  on�  an�  alarmingly�  regular�  basis�  due�  to�  off�  

campus�  shoo ngs�  within�  walking�  distance�  of�  the�  A&M-­‐Commerce�  campus�  ques ons�  arose�  about�  whether�  Commerce�  was�  becom-ing�  a�  more�  dangerous�  place�  to�  live.�  The�  impending�  campus�  carry�  implementa on�  and�  arrival�  of�  open�  carry�  across�  the�  state�  this�  past�  

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these�  situa ons.

PHOTO COURTESY/SIIES.TAMUC.EDUPHOTO ILLUSTRATION/ANDREW BURNES

Crime on the rise?

Althought�  sta s cs�  through�  2013�  seem�  to�  suggest�  that�  crime�  in�  Commerce�  is�  on�  the�  rise,�  �  the�  

Commerce�  Police�  department�  suggest�  that�  the�  depth�  of�  the�  issue�  is�  widely�  exaggerated.�  “We�  

don’t�  have�  a�  major�  crime�  problem,”�  Commerce�  Police�  officer�  Alex�  Suarez�  said.�  “I’d�  have�  to�  say�  

that�  reality�  is�  that�  Commerce�  is�  normal.

PHOTO COURTESY/POLICEARCHIVES.COM

“As�  a�  whole,�  I�  don’t�  think�  

that�  Commerce�  has�  a�  

big�  issue�  with�  handguns�  

and guns in general. We don’t�  o en�  have�  issues.”

- Alex SuarezCommerce�  Police�  officer

C!"#$% FEB. 25, 2015PAGE 4

Tina Yang, Ph.D.Special Contributer

Celebrate this New Year and new semester by giving yourself something special; something that doesn’t cost a penny yet is priceless. Oftentimes, people come to counseling to regain happiness with the realization that in the process of making others happy, we sometimes lose ourselves and push aside our own needs. If you !nd yourself in this situation, know that you can reclaim your inner balance by practicing these three powerful tips.

1. Get a good night sleep.“Sleeping is not time wasting.” Mike WilsonResearch shows that not having enough sleep can a"ect your emotions

and memory. People who are sleep deprived may be more forgetful, easily irritable, depressed, or have a “short fuse.” Notice how your living environment, daily routine, or thoughts and emotions interact with your amount and quality of sleep. Examine your sleep hygiene and create one that works for you. Whether it be taking a hot shower or enjoying a glass of warm milk before going to bed, a rule of thumb is to put away all your electronic devices 30 minutes before bed. To further enhance your sleep quality, you can practice repeating positive or grateful thoughts.

2. Appreciate and accept yourself.“Let go of who you think you’re supposed to be and embrace who you

are.” Dr. Brené Brown Self-acceptance, a major key to happiness, is to embrace all aspects

of yourself—the positives and the parts you see as imperfect. In a fast-paced society, it is easy for us to quickly conclude our experience as either “good” or “bad,” “a success” or “failure,” whereas a wider spectrum and deeper sense of understanding is left uncaptured. Free yourself from the dichotomous world by becoming more mindful and aware of your own thoughts and feelings as they arise without judgment. If negativity appears (or reappears), gently notice it without suppressing the thought or forcing yourself to turn it into something positive. Find a quiet place and devote at least 3 minutes of your time daily to begin this practice. You deserve taking time for yourself and to be appreciated.

3. Make meaningful connections with others.“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” An

African ProverbHaving meaningful connections with others bene!ts our emotional

stability. A key to a long lasting friendship is to invest time getting to know someone and to keep in touch even after college. Research !ndings suggest that you can maintain a quality relationship by sharing important news and updates about yourself from time to time. #is can also help reconnect a lapsed friendship. Try to build a new connection as you take opportunities to sit with someone you don’t know in a class or in the cafeteria, and have a light-hearted conversation.

If you would like to learn more about how to live a balanced life, join us in a series of “Balanced Living Workshops” o"ered in the Counseling Center this semester with rotating topics on Mindfulness, Emotional Regulation, Self-Compassion, and Interpersonal E"ectiveness. It’s going on now on Tuesdays from 12-1pm in the Halladay Student Services Building #204. No registration required.

Counseling CornerLocal restaurant in the heart of campus o!ers study breaks

a Mediterranian "avor

Alissa SilvaStudent Life Editor

Gyro Express recently opened its second location where former Pride Co"ee was located near the university’s library on 1706 Lee St.

#e Mediterranean restaurant serves food such as lamb platters, chicken gy-ros, hot wings, vegetarian falafel gyros, and samosas.

“#e food we make is exactly like something we’d cook for ourselves,” owner Omar said. “We cook our food as if we are cooking it for our loved ones. #e !rst question I ask is how they like the food.”

Purchasing their produce from Dal-las, everything on their menu is made from scratch in the morning by Omar’s cousin, Ray. Even though the food is

considered mild, it can be requested to be spicy.

“All of our food is from family reci-pes. We marinate everything ourselves and make all our sauces ourselves,” Omar said. “Our food is also all ha-lal.”

Not only do they have fruit smoothies and co"ee, they have hoo-kahs that can be enjoyed on the outside patio throughout the day. Among the many $avors are watermelon, straw-berry, and pineapple.

In order to keep the hookah going, a natural coconut coal is used.

“Commerce is a small town and people are extremely nice,” Omar said. “Everyone knows everyone and calls each other by their !rst name.”

After receiving a business proposi-tion from previous owner Hans, Omar

moved from New Jersey and opened the Mediterranean restaurant due to his brother’s restaurant’s success.

“I wanted to move to Texas to slow life down. #ings move much faster in the northeast,” Omar said. “If it wasn’t for my brother, we wouldn’t be here.”

With a di"erent clientele than in New Jersey, Gyro Express has been popular with members of faculty as well as residents of the neighboring Sigma Chi house. Out of 28 reviews on Facebook, all of them are positive and have given the restaurant !ve out of !ve stars.

“#ings have been going beautiful-ly. Word of mouth is spreading.”

Gyro Express can deliver past 2pm and is open Monday through Friday 9am to 10 pm, Saturday 11am to 10pm, and Sunday 11am to 8pm.

!ree Powerful Gi"s to Yourselffor a More Balanced Life

The !ags in front of the McDowell Administration Building !ew at half-mast last week and over the weekend per the orders of President Barack Obama and Governor Greg Abbott, in remembrance of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who was found dead at a ranch resort in West Texas the morning of Saturday, Feb. 13.

EAST TEXAN PHOTO/TRAVIS HAIRGROVE

PHOTO COURTESY/JON ZANANIRI

Cade Lake, a member of the A&M-Commerce Climbing Society competing at a climbing competition held at Southern Methodist University Saturday, Feb. 20. Lake and the rest of his teammates are in the midst of preparing for Gravity Check, an A&M-Commerce hosted climbing competition being held on March 5, a part of the 2016 Collegiate Climbing Series.

EAST TEXAN PHOTO/BARTON BOLLFRASS

Sights on Campus: !ags at half-mast during a gray, cloudy

weekend

FEB. 25, 2016PAGE 5 F!"#$%!&Commerce Students

get Swede DealTodd KleiboerEast Texan

With its rich culture, history, and beauty, Sweden has always been a center for tourism and schol-arly interest alike, and through a study-abroad course, Texas A&M University-Commerce stu-dents now have the opportunity to experience Sweden !rst-hand for the !rst time.

“To my knowledge, I don’t think any program a"liated with our university has traveled to Swe-den before,” Dr. Yvonne Villanueva-Russell, who along with Dr. Tabetha Adkins will lead the trip, said. “It made sense to visit Sweden because I had some background in that.”

#e ten-day course, Sociology 497/597: Com-parative Health Care Systems, will study, as the name implies, the healthcare system of Sweden through guest lecturers whose topics will span across birth, death, hospitals, and alternative medicine. #is course is not partnered with a foreign university and is worth three hours of credit.

“It is o"cially o$ered as a sociology course,” Villanueva-Russell said. “But one that is also sponsored by the International Studies.”

Villanueva-Russell’s interest in Sweden is long-lived, and when she had the opportunity to plan a course taken abroad, she knew exactly where to go.

“My dissertation advisor, Andrew Twaddle, was sort of an expert in the Swedish healthcare system. Twenty years ago, he talked about how great the Swedish healthcare system was, so I was always interested in that. I wanted to combine my interest in medical sociology,” Villanueva-Russell said.

#e course, however, will be just that, a course, but in the heart of Stockholm and Gothenburg, the two largest cities in Sweden. #ere are three assignments to be completed: one research paper, one personal essay, and one cultural activity. #e cultural activity is actually in the form of a bingo card with students trying to make !lled di$erent activities such as visiting a museum or talking to a native Swede written within them.

“I’m hoping they’ll gain some kind of aca-demic sense of di$erent healthcare systems, dif-ferent philosophies of health, di$erent lifestyles,”

Vi l lanueva-Russe l l said. “And I’m hoping that they gain an ap-preciation for di$er-ent cultures, di$erent countries, particularly for people who haven’t traveled abroad be-fore.”

Even though Vil-lanueva-Russell has traveled with other students before as part of the Regents’ Schol-ar program, this is !rst time she has actually been fully responsible for the students.

“My general thoughts are a mixture of excitement and terror. It’s exciting be-cause it’s a new country and we haven’t been

there before, but it is also terrifying because it’s a great unknown and you don’t know what might happen,” Villanueva-Russell said. “Mostly I’m excited.”

A famous Swedish festival called the Mid-summer’s will also be celebrated during the days that the students are staying in Gothenburg. It marks the sum-mer solstice, the beginning of summer.

“It’s sort of a national holi-day, and it would be equivalent of our 4th of July. It’s time for them to have this community celebration, and we will experi-ence that,” Villanueva-Russell said.

#e cost might be o$-putting for some people as it runs from around $4,660 for undergradu-ates to $4, 850 for graduates, but there is a $1,000 scholarship

available through the International Studies Of-!ce to help relieve some of the !nancial pain.

For more information, email Dr. Yvonne Villanueva-Russell at Yvonne.VRussell@tamuc.edu.

PHOTOS COURTESY /WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

place isn’t compromised and make sure you aren’t being followed.”

#e group was receiving violent threats from people who disagreed with their idea that rape should be legalized.

“#e media didn’t close down the meet ups…they did something far more terrifying, they used fabrications to mo-bilize the masses,” Berne said.

“[#ey] took one article written by [Valizadeh] in which he proposed a thought experiment to increase the safe-ty of women by ‘legalizing rape on pri-vate property.’ #e elites took a gamble that taking that article out of context and exaggerating it to the fullest extent would cause a !restorm,” he said.

“#e media twisted the followers of [Return of Kings] and [Valizadeh] into ‘rape supporters’ simply because of one article that was obvious satire,” Berne said.

“I propose that we make the violent taking of a woman not punishable by law where done o$ public grounds,” Valizadeh said.

On Feb. 2, people worldwide began their attempt to shut down the event by opposing the meetings, and sending out violent threats to anyone who supports the group, through social media outlets and direct messages to Valizadeh.

“#e mainstream media had been reporting on [the men’s only group] as a ‘rape legalization group’ for several days, stirring up social justice warriors, inciting violent groups in several cities,

and even receiving public condemnation from mayors, governors, and legal organi-zations,” Davis M.J. Aurini, a writer for the Return of Kings website, said.

“#e risk had become unacceptable…a tactical retreat was the only sane option,” Aurini said.

Texas A&M University-Commerce is designated as a free speech zone, therefore, “if the group showed up to campus, and aren’t sponsored by a university group, they can legally do what they want as long as they aren’t violating any other laws,” Lieutenant Jason Bone, of the A&M-Com-merce University Police Department, said.

“[However], if they were to be spon-sored by a university group, the rule is to have a risk assessment done for security purposes,” Bone said.

“Students would be able to participate with the group on their own terms and make that choice, however my role is to inform students and educate them on the sexual misconduct policy,” Patience Bry-ant, associate director of judicial a$airs for Campus Life and Student Development, said.

“Statistics show that not many college students know about rape and situations like this happen on campuses, and they don’t really know that groups like this ex-ist; which is why we will be showing a doc-umentary called #e Hunting Ground,” Danielle Davis, director of Serving En-gaged Empowered and Diverse Students, also known as S.E.E.D.S., said.

“So that we can inform the students about this particular issue and help edu-cate them so that they can make better de-cisions,” she said.

Group Uses Mens’ Right toMask Misogyny

SoundtrackBurnes’ Turns

FEB. 25, 2016PAGE 6 E!"#$"%&!'#!"

!is tearjerker stems from the same position that made !e Ink Spots so great in the ‘40s, but ampli"ed to a new stratosphere of fallen love. !e harmonies are on point, the simple, arpeggiatic piano progession keeps the track moving, and the gorgeous orchestral strings soar above like a white dove above a heartbroken disaster area.

!e everyman master hit his cinematic storytelling peak with Born to Run in 1975, but his genius began to really take form with his 1973 epic named after the greatest side band in music history, his own. Each track on the album was its own and each is a classic in its own right, but the closer manages to stand out from the rest with its David L. Sancious’ simultaneously classically trained and jazzy piano work and string arrangements. A closing statement so perfect, you can almost see the credits roll-ing as it spins.

!e most badass Guns N’ Roses song of all time (and THAT is a highly contested position) #ies in the face of their biggest hits but plays to everything that makes the band the greatest Rock band of all time not named !e Rolling Stones. !e song starts with a piano chord rather than a guitar chord, and the next "ve minutes are an aural assault comparable to gang warfare. Every member of the band is at their highest form here, each retaining his own voice as the Rock n’ Roll locomotive rolls along, but they all play and sing as a single entity resulting in the best climax in the band’s history as they all singalong in unison at the 2:30 mark before Slash lets rip one of his greatest recorded solos into the annals of Rock history.

Andrew BurnesEditor

After Guns N’ Roses released the hast-ily compiled (yet still awesome) GN’R Lies in 1988 as they toured for Appetite for De-struction, the band entered into a lengthy, three-year hiatus. Rumors began to circle as the band kicked out drummer Steven Adler for his addiction to meth. Axl Rose, a noted recluse, was not the most media friendly indi-vidual, and for years nothing came from the hottest band in the world.

Until "nally, something did. Over the course of the time after the Appetite for De-struction tour, Guns n’ Roses was not resting on its laurels, they were busy creating a piece of music with proportions so epic, it would need to be split into two. !us, on Sept. 17, 1991, Use Your Illusion I and II were born simultaneously, in one of the ballsiest market-ing stunts ever devised.

Album sales for the Use Your Illusion duo were supposed to be o$ the charts and while they didn’t reach !riller or Born in the U.S.A. levels as originally predicted, they did debut at the No. 1 and 2 spot, the "rst and only band to ever pull o$ such a feat. With no lead single, Use Your Illusion I took the No. 2 spot, but those willing to take a chance on the brighter half of the siblings were treated to the slightly more perfect album.

Initial listeners of the record were probably surprised; as they had done with the second half of Lies, Guns N’ Roses reinvented them-selves with the Use Your Illusion LPs. But where Lies, with its acoustic departure from Appetite for Destruction, o$ered a di$erent look at the band, Use Your Illusion com-pletely recreated them in a new image. Axl’s increasingly ambitious designs were in full e$ect here, and while there’s an argument to be made that the Illusion twins are not quite as strong as their forebear as a whole, they’re pretty damn close.

Impressively, with tracks spanning nearly every genre imaginable from Blues to Punk to Hard Rock to impressive compositions that passed the 10-minute mark, Use Your Illu-sion I still works as a cohesive e$ort. !ere’s a solid balance between the rockers that made the band famous (“Right Next Door to Hell,” “Perfect Crime”) and the new avenues of approach (“Don’t Cry,” “!e Garden”). But even the balls-to-the-wall Rockers were harder, rawer, and heavier than what had come before. !e relatively lighthearted lyr-ics of “Nightrain” and “Rocket Queen” were replaced with aggresive themes of violence and paranoia. “Perfect Crime” in particular is the most aggressive Guns n’ Roses’ track on record, letting loose all of Axl’s pent up frustrations in less than three supercharged minutes (I dare you to check out the band’s performance of the song in Axl’s soaked home state of Virginia), while “Don’t Damn Me” presents Rock’s greatest madman at his most paranoid and unhinged.

!ough Matt Sorum, Adler’s replacement on the skins, was the new man in the group, he "t in like a velvet glove and in many ways even improved upon the hard-hitting formula

that Adler had devised (how any drum head survived a night with Sorum is beyond me). He keeps ragers like “Back o$ Bitch” and “Double Talking Jive” moving at breakneck pace while still managing to keep the train on the rails. Meanwhile, Slash was as virtuostic as ever; his ability to shift styles song-for-song throughout the album continued to provide evidence as to how far ahead of the competi-tion he really was.

!e departures from typical Guns form are just as masterful as what brought the band had previously perfected. “Don’t Cry” (which, according to Rose, is actually the "rst song the band ever wrote together) features ambiguous lyrics with an unambiguous musical story from Slash, Du$ and Izzy, while the gran-diose “November Rain” was by far the most ambitious production attempt the band ever made featuring a full orchestra, piano work from both Axl and newcomer Dizzy Reed and a coda driven by one of Slash’s career standout moments that rivals “Layla” for the best of all time. Speaking of the top-hatted guitar man, he reportedly loved the 10-minute plus closer “Coma” (which features 5 guitar solos and no chorus), but it sounds a lot more like one of Axl’s rampantly imaginative fanta-sies. !e band was expanding fast, and there was no going back.

!rough all of the LP’s impressive 75 minutes, though, it wasn’t the epic ballads or paint-peeling Rockers that created the best moment on record for Guns N’ Ros-es, it was playing to the band’s strengths, that gang mentality that pervades “Dust N Bones” that stands out as the best Guns song ever. !ere’s a moment in the second track where the entire band breaks out into a singalong about leaving yesterday’s girl be-hind while moving down the war torn road of tomorrow before the Slash rips one of his best into the dusty wasteland of Rock and Roll. Guns N’ Roses were united, on "re, and for this moment in time, they were the best in the world.

Guns n’ Roses’ reinvention created new de!nition

PHOTO COURTESY/YOUTUBE.COM

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Back to BlackSpotify and Apple Music may be destroying the industry,

but they also paved the way for vinyl’s epic comeback

PHOTO COURTESY/METALSUCKS.NET

Spin againWhile all-you-can-listen music streaming services like Spotify have greatly diminished artist returns and potentially irrevocably hurt the music industry as a whole, there’s an argument to be made that they also paved the way for the return of vinyl.

1. Guns n’ Roses“Dust N’ Bones”

2. Bruce Springsteen“New York Serenade”

3. Skeeter Davis“The End of the World”

Andrew BurnesEditor

It started with an impulse. Not un-heard of for a senior-level college student on Christmas break. Especially in a store like Hastings. After all, there’s a lot of love to go around in there.

Going to Hastings in Greenville is a Christmas break tradition in my family. Maybe not the most exciting, exquisite tra-dition ever, but something that we always look forward to. In years past, I always ended up with a mountanous stack of cheap used CDs that may or may not have ever had a chance of being opened again after being ripped on my over-sized laptop, but listening to the CDs themselves wasn’t par-ticularly the point. Sure, the format isn’t completely dead; I still use them in my car pretty regularly since I haven’t migrated into the current decade with Auxillary cord technology. But with the advent of Spotify, CDs have become more and more obsolete.

A small stack of old Bob Dylan CDs al-ready forming, I migrated around to where the normal CD collection is and instead found something that would shape my the future of my musical life much more directly than a few battered old discs: shelves of record players. I’ve always been interested in vinyl, of course, ever since I saw Roots drummer ?uestlove’s impressive collection in the pages of an old issue of Rolling Stone. I even "g-ured that I’d buy a record player of my own someday, but walking into that store on that day, buying one on the spot didn’t even cross my mind. But that’s exactly what I did.

And so began a world of disappointment, triumph, excitement, and a whole new level of music collection. It took me three di$erent record players to "nd the one that I wanted

(Crosleys suck, by the way), but my small-but-growing record collection now "nds a semi-permanent home on my chest of draw-ers in my apartment room. I absolutely adore every single one.

But what created this possibility? Years ago, I wouldn’t have even considered the pos-sibility of buying such an outdated piece of technology? After all, how was I going to get the music from the record’s grooves onto my iPod Classic?

But the world of music is di$erent now. Sure, I still can’t rip the music directly from my records onto my portable device of choice, no I can’t listen to my records in my Toyota

Corolla, but through music streaming ser-vices, I can still listen to my favorite songs that I "nd through LPs on the go without having to pay for them a second time. And I think that mentality, that change in the dy-namic of music listening, is responsibile for the rejuvination of the classic music-listening medium.

Is vinyl really back for the long haul? In a market as unpredictable as the one we "nd ourselves in now, it’s really impossible to pre-dict. But as long as music streaming keeps extra money in our pockets, it gives us the opportunity to try new things, even if they come from the past.

45The margin of victory Texas A&M- Commerce had over second place A&M- Kingsville at the LSC�  indoor�  track�  and�  field�  champtionships.

hotshot

0.8000The overall win percentage of Midwestern State and Angelo State men’s basketball

teams.�  

numbersgame

FEB. 25, 2016

men’shoopsTeam LSC Overall

Midwestern State 9-4 20-5Angelo State 8-5 20-5Tarleton State 8-5 19-7West Texas A&M 8-5 20-9Cameron 8-5 15-10A&M- Commerce 6-7 17-9A&M- Kingsville 3-10 11-13Eastern New Mexico 2-11 6-19

Individual LeadersPoints

Player Avg./G

David Chavlovich, WT .................... 20.4EJ Reed, TSU ................................ 18.2Tre Bennett, ASU ........................... 17.0Stedman Allen, ASU ...................... 16.3Bryant Crowder, A&M-C ................ 16.0

Rebounds

Player Avg./G

Khapri Alston, MSU ..........................9.4Troy Jones, A&M- K ..........................8.0Lawrence Domingo, ENMU ..............7.9Omari Gudul, ASU ............................7.7EJ Reed, TSU ...................................7.6

Assists

Player Avg./G

Michael Hardge, TSU ........................4.8Tre Bennett, ASU ..............................4.7Jeremy Jones, A&M-C .....................4.2JV Long, CAM ..................................4.1Anthony Adams, A&M- C ..................3.7

Steals

Player Avg./G

Bretson McNeal MSU ...................... 1.8JV Long, CAM ................................. 1.6Michael Hardge, CAM ...................... 1.6Anthony Adams, A&M-C .................. 1.6Malcolm Hamilton, TSU .................. 1.4

women’shoopsTeam LSC Overall

West Texas A&M 12-3 23-3Angelo State 11-4 18-7Texas Woman’s 10-5 20-7Tarleton State 10-5 16-9A&M- Commerce 8-7 15-12Cameron 7-7 13-10East. New Mexico 5-10 10-15Midwestern State 4-11 5-20A&M- Kingsville 0-15 5-20

Individual LeadersPoints

Player Avg./G

Taylor Dorsey, ASU ........................ 16.9Dayla Threatt, CAM ....................... 13.9Bailey Wipff, TSU ........................... 13.7Jasmine Prophet, ASU .................. 13.2Michaela Neuhaus, WT .................. 12.5

Rebounds

Player Avg./G

Erin Maxwell, TWU............................8.1Amari Jones, A&M-C ........................7.7Ikpeaku Iwobi, TSU...........................7.6Maddison Wild, WT ..........................6.6Taylor Dorsey, ASU ...........................6.4

Assists

Player Avg./G

Sasha Watson, WT ...........................5.0Taylor Dorsey, ASU ...........................4.1Shomari Harris, A&M- C ...................3.6Morgan Ashmore, TSU .....................3.4Michaela Neuhaus, WT .....................3.4

Steals

Player Avg./G

Madison McLain, WT ....................... 2.1Sasha Watson, WT .......................... 2.0Sarah Stinnett, ENMU...................... 2.0Michaela Neuhaus, WT .................... 1.8Allie Decker, WT .............................. 1.6

ScheduleFebruary 27

Midwestern State vs. CameronAngelo state vs. A&M- KingsvilleTarleton State vs. A&M- Commerce West Texas A&M vs. Eastern New Mexico

March 2-5

Lone Star Conference Championship

ScheduleFebruary 27

Midwestern State vs. CameronTarleton State vs. A&M- CommerceAngelo State vs. A&M- KingsvilleWest Texas A&M vs. East. New Mexico

March 2-5

Lone Star Conference Championship

Four tabbed for top performances

WT’S Cruz, TWU’s Bice earn weekly honors

MEN’S & WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

SOFTBALL

PHOTO COURTESY/LONESTARCONFERENCE.ORG

PAGE 7

Team CONF Overall

West Texas A&M 0-0 16-0A&M- Commerce 0-0 11-2Cameron 0-0 14-5Angelo State 0-0 11-4Tarleton State 0-0 12-5Midwestern State 0-0 12-8Texas Woman’s 0-0 9-7A&M0 Kingsville 0-0 6-5East. New Mexico 0-0 7-7

Midwestern State and West Texas A&M head into the last week of play with a one-game advantage in the Lone Star Conference men’s and women’s standings, respectively.

MSU has clinched a share of its ninth LSC title as the Mustangs have won seven LSC titles over the last 10 seasons. WT has earned a share of its third straight and 13th overall LSC crown.

!is week’s games will determine a majority of the postseason seeding with only Texas A&M-Commerce set as the No. 6 seed on the men’s side at this point.

!e MSU at Cameron double-header will be broadcast on ESPN3 as the NCAA Division II Basketball Games of the Week.

!e LSC champion will be the regular season winner determined by league games, while the postseason tournament winner is designated as LSC Tournament Champion and earns the conference’s automatic quali"ca-tion.

!e LSC men have a 128-77 overall record so far this season. In the NCAA South Central Region, the men’s teams are currently 13-9 combined versus Heartland Confer-ence teams and 12-8 against the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

!e LSC women are 125-103 over-all. !e women’s squads are currently 20-14 combined against the Heartland, and 8-6 versus RMAC teams, which are the other conferences in the NCAA South Central Region.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEKMen’s o#ensive- Khapri Alston, Mid-

western State University, SR, Forward, Chicago, Ill., !ornwood HS (North-east CC (Neb.))

Alston averaged 18 points and nine rebounds a game to lead No. 22 Mid-western State to wins over Texas A&M-Kingsville and No. 16 Angelo State last week to clinch at least a share of its ninth Lone Star Conference cham-pionship. !e 6-4, 240-pound senior notched his 10th double-double of the season with 17 points and 11 rebounds in 31 minutes in Saturday’s 76-71 win over Angelo State. !e perfor-

mance came on the heels of an historic 27-point, 25-rebound e#ort earlier this season against the Rams in San Angelo. Alston paced the Mustangs to an 81-63 win at Texas A&M-Kingsville earlier in the week scoring 19 points on 9-of-14 shooting while pulling in seven boards in 25 minutes. Alston continues to lead the LSC in rebounding at 9.4 boards per game and is 11th in scoring at 13.6 points per game.

Men’s defensive- Trevor Fuller, Mid-western State University, JR, Forward, Dallas, Texas, Episcopal School (San Diego)

Fuller set Lone Star Conference and school records with 11 blocked shots while leading 22nd-ranked Midwest-ern State to a win over No. 16-ranked Angelo State Saturday to clinch at least a share of MSU’s ninth league title. !e 6-8, 235-pound senior from Dal-las needed just 20 minutes to match former All-America Eric Dawson’s school record of eight blocked shots set on Dec., 2, 2006 against Southeastern Oklahoma State. Fuller swatted three more shots in the second half to eclipse the former LSC mark of 10 originally authored by East Central’s Ian Adams (vs. Texas A&M-Commerce, 2005) and West Texas A&M’s Carlos Silva (vs. Southwestern Oklahoma, 2004). !e 11 blocked shots are the third most in NCAA Division II this season behind the 14 set by West Alabama’s Dakari Mayo and 12 by Florida Southern’s Jarel Spellman. Fuller raised his season block total to 83 and needs 13 more to match the school single season record of 96 set by Eric Dawson during the 2006-07 season. He is averaging 3.92 blocked shots per game (51 blocks in 13 games) during league play.

Women’s o#ensive- Kenesha Saygo, Texas Woman’s University, JR, Guard, Killeen, Texas, Killeen Ellison HS

Saygo averaged a team-best 22.5 points while shooting 62.1 percent from the $oor including 52.9 percent from the three-point range and helped the Pioneers to a 2-0 record last week. She scored a game-high 14 points in a road win against Texas A&M-Kings-ville on !ursday and then single-handedly knocked o# Angelo State

with a career-high 31 points on Sunday. Saygo made 9 of 14 three pointers (one shy of single game school record) against Rambelles. After ASU took a 39-38 halftime lead, TWU opened the third quarter with a 16-0 run with Saygo scoring 12 of the 16 points. In the third and fourth quarters she shot 7-for-9 from the $oor and 5-for-6 from three including 5-for-5 (4-for-4 from the three) in the key third quarter. On the season, Saygo is the team leader in scoring (11.7 ppg) and 3FG (.381).

Women’s defensive- Bailey Wip#, Tarleton State University, JR, Guard,

Lubbock, Texas, Coronado HSWip# ’s defensive presence went way

beyond the numbers for Tarleton last weekend as the junior from Lubbock keyed Tarleton’s resurgence in the second half to erase a 16-point, second-half de"cit Saturday night to defeat No. 9 West Texas A&M and deliver Tarleton’s seventh consecutive victory. She may have only had four rebounds, two assists, and one steal, but Wip#

took the responsibility of guarding the LSC Preseason Player of the Year and Preseason All-American Sasha Watson with eight seconds left on the clock and Tarleton leading by one at 53-52 in Wisdom Gym. She forced Watson into a miss as the buzzer expired to give Tarleton the win. Wip# shared the defensive responsibility of WT’s guards, who entered the game averag-ing a combined 23.4 points per game on a combined .499 shooting percent-age from the $oor, and helped hold the duo below their season average for scoring and shooting percentage from

the "eld for the game. She anchored the Tarleton defense that held oppo-nents to 56.0 points per game. In the West Texas A&M game, Wip# and the Tarleton defense held the Lady Bu#s to single-digit scoring in the "rst and fourth quarters, including a .333 shoot-ing clip in the second half of Tarleton’s comeback win.

PHOTO COURTESY/ LONESTARCONFERENCE.ORG

2016softball

ScheduleFebruary 26

A&M- Commerce vs. CameronMidwestern State vs. East. New MexicoA&M- Commerce vs. CameronAngelo State vs. A&M- Kingsville

Junior guard Bailey Tip! earned women’s defensive player of the week for Tarel-ton State University.

West Texas A&M leads the Lone Star Conference with a perfect 10-0 record. Teams are set for another week of non-conference contests.

LSC teams are playing a single round-robin schedule with a four games against each league opponent. !e four-game series shall consist of a doubleheader Friday and a doubleheader Saturday.

!e overall LSC Champion will be the team(s) with the best winning percentage in regular-season conference games, while the winner of the post-season championship will be recognized as LSC Tournament Champion and receive the league’s automatic quali"cation into NCAA postseason. !e single-elimination championship will be played April 29-30, at the No. 1 seed.

LSC softball teams are 69-32 overall this season. In the NCAA South Central Region, the group is currently 25-12 combined versus Heartland Confer-ence teams and 29-10 against the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEKHitter- Brittany Cruz, West Texas A&M Uni-

versity, FR, Out"elder, New Braunfels, Texas, New Braunfels HS

Cruz had a monster weekend for the No. 22 Lady Bu#s during the WT Invitational at Schae#er Park in Canyon as WT moved to 10-0 on the season with wins over Fort Lewis, Chadron State, No. 12 St. Mary’s, Metro State and Adams State. !e freshman out"elder hit .643 with nine hits in her 14 at-bats while scoring seven runs as the New Braunfels na-tive tallied three doubles, one triple and one homer to drive in a team leading 10 RBI for a slugging percentage of 1.214 while walking two times for an

on-base clip of .647. Cruz also had a great weekend in right "eld as she registered a perfect 1.000 "elding percentage with two putouts and one assist. Cruz came thru at the plate when it mattered the most as the freshman went 3-for-7 against the two 2015 NCAA Regional participants in Metro State and No. 12 St. Mary’s to drive in eight RBI in those two contests including four RBI on two doubles against the defending Regional Champion Rattlers on Satur-day night in a run-rule win.

Pitcher- Tori Bice, Texas Woman’s University, JR,

P, Mesquite, Texas, Mesquite HSBice posted a 3-0 record with a 0.93 ERA last

week. She won all three games she started and struck out 13 batters while allowing just two earned runs. Bice tossed a complete-game against Adams State and struck out a career-high eight batters. She also pitched three hitless innings in a "ve-inning run-rule win versus CSU-Pueblo. On the season, Bice has a team-best six wins and 31 strike outs in 44.0 innings.

Freshman out"elder Brittany Cruz earned hitter of the week during a game against New Braunfels after hit-ting .643 with nine hits in her 14 at-bats.

S!"#$% FEB. 25, 2016PAGE 8

Evan LueckeSta! writer

"e Lions returned to the Lone Star Conference Indoor Track Championships to hopefully bring the trophy back to Com-merce, Texas.

"e #rst scoring event to take place Fri-day night was the 5k. Turner Pool started o! scoring 1 point on the men’s side and for the Ladies, Terra Truitt and Mary Ham-monds both scored. "e next event re-ally kicked o! the meet with the Distance Medley Relay. "e men racked up some points placing third. "e ladies placed 6th scoring.

Field events had a very successful #rst day. Abby Estes set a score record in the long jump, jumping 5.44 meters. Kati Cullpepper and Maggie Waites scored in women’s pole vault. Joe Brown and Tyler Rambo lead 6 of the 8 throwers went sec-ond and third to score in the weight throw. Johnathan Cole set a school record and a NCAA provisional mark with 6’10.75”. Gage Bowels and Devontae Steele went two, three in the long jump, leading 6 scor-ers in the long jump. Alexandra VanSickle

and Robin Anitil’a scored in the women’s weight throw. Matthew Rich took second in the men’s pole vault with 16’2.75 that’s number 14 in d2.

On day two, the Lions took care of busi-ness. Mackenzie Tyra broke the school re-cord in the 60-meter dash with 7.75. Joe Brown won the shot put and Tyler Rambo came in second as the Lions racked up 19 points. Devontae Steele and Gage Bowles went one, two in the triple jump setting the 2nd and 3rd best marks in the nation, making Steele a two-time winner. Hailey Nelson #nished fourth in the high jump hitting a NCAA provisional mark with a 5.66m. Luis Romero #nished second in the 800. Luis Romero, Andrew Cobos, and Steeven Martinez all score in the 800. Ashley Basett #nished 3rd in the 60 me-ter hurdles dash with 8.93. "e Lions 4x4 women’s place 2nd hitting a NCAA provi-sional mark.

"e Lions on the women’s set a school record with 79.5 points and placed 5th in the conference. "e Men went Back- To- Back. Scoring 210 points, winning by 45 points which is a Lonestar Conference Re-cord.

THE EAST TEXAN PHOTO/ TRAVIS HAIRGROVE

Fill the Field attracts sizable crowd to victory over the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds

Diva Simon Sta! writer

"e A&M-Commerce women’s basketball team had a 50-50 week. Starting the week o! with a tough lost against the number one team in the country in Division II, "e West Texas Lady Bu!s (58-63). "e Lions started o! low going 0 for 3, while the Lady Bu!s started the game o! on a 7-of-0 run. Once the Lions got their feet up under them they had their own 7-of-0 run in the #rst quarter and shot 4 of 4 to cut the lead down. "e ladies shot 50% from the #eld and 5-of-6 from the charity stripe at the half where they were tied 25-25 with West Texas A&M. To start the second half the lions showed their dominance in the paint by getting six quick points from sophomore Artaejah Gay, and four from junior Brittany Adams. Lions ended the third down one (42-41).

Gabby Scott starts the four quarter with a beautiful three-pointer to give the Lions the lead (44-42), but after that shot they went 1-of-6 from the #eld until Scott breaks the dry spell with

another three-pointer to cut the lead to three with 1:33 left on the clock. Lions made a crucial game changing turn-over that sent the Lady Bu!s to the line and could pull out the win.

When asked about his team’s performance Head Coach Jason Burton said, “Our girls played well and the game came down to the last few possessions. We cleaned up in the second half as far as taking care of the ball in the second half. We have two more games at home that we need to take care of and then hope to see WT again this season.”

"e lions leaders of this game was Gay with 13pts, Davis with 13, and Scott with 10; also Harris lead the lions with 7rbs and 6 assist. A&M-Commerce are 5-54 against West Texas A&M.

"e next game was Sat. afternoon against Eastern New Mexico, where the lions played a pretty solid game overall. Starting the #rst quarter on a 9-0 run; shooting 4-4 from the #eld; ending the quar-ter leading 23-8. Gabby Scott popped the second quarter o! with a tre ball and cashed another 2 minutes later extending the lead to 19. Going on a 6-0 run to end the #rst half shooting 45.5% from

the #eld and 42.9% from behind the arc; Com-merce went into the second half very con#dent.

"e ladies were outscored by one in the third quarter, but played explosive on the defensive end and force the Greyhounds into four early turnovers and extended their lead to 24. "e lions struggled with #nding their rhythm going into the fourth which cut their 24 point lead down to 6. Despite the Greyhounds hard #ght to rally back the lions still came out with the win 69-59.

Head Coach Jason Burton said, “Tonight was a tough game to coach. It was unclear on how the game was going to be called. But everyone contributed and was really engaged tonight. Eastern New Mexico made their run like we knew they would, but we stayed poised and #nished the job.’

"is has also been the #rst winning season for the A&M- Com-merce Women since the 2008-09 season.

Burton said, “It is really good to do this, but I have to give a shout out to my coaching sta!. We came in and worked hard to accomplish this goal; hats o! to them because it is not just me.”

"e next game is the last home game and regular conference

The Lion Dance Team cheers the A&M-Commerce Women’s Basketball team as they dig in toward their 69-59 point victory over the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds at Lion Athletics’ Fill the Field House event.

Lions track and !eld return to LSC competition

A&M-Commerce Athletics set a modern at-tendance record with 2,153 in attendance in "e Field House, while the Lions took care of business on the court with an 81-73 win over Eastern New Mexico Saturday in a Lone Star Conference show-down.

"e turning point in a one-possession game – a 74-73 Lion lead – Jeremy Jones stepped into a wing triple from with 1:14 remaining to give A&M-Commerce a 77-73 lead. On a night when the A&M-Commerce worked to pack the home venue, Jones’ three got a home-court bounce after hitting the front of the rim, the backboard and the rim again before falling through the net.

Leading highlights Ronnie White led the Li-ons with 17 points marking the second straight he scored 17 points. He went 6-of-9 from the #eld and 5-of-6 from the free throw line. White also hauled in six rebounds. White led the Lions in scoring for only the third time this season and #rst time since the second game of the year back on November 14 against Newman.

Anthony Adams followed with 15 points high-lighted by an 8-of-10 performance from the free throw line. Adams also grabbed nine rebounds and handed out four assists.

Jones notched 12 points with none bigger than the three he hit from the right wing with 1:14 left to play for his 12th and #nal points.

JR Owens provided 11 points after going 5-of-7

from the #eld."e Lion bench came up with 19 points thanks

to eight points each from Craig Fofang and Ever-rett Pleasant. Fofang was an e$cient 4-of-6, while Pleasant cleaned up the glass with 10 rebounds.

A&M-Commerce outshot Eastern New Mexi-co to a tune of 46 percent to 38 percent from the #eld. ENMU held a narrow percentage advantage from 3-point range, 38 percent to 33 percent, but the Greyhounds had more makes from long-range, 12 to six.

ENMU forced the Lions into 17 turnovers that resulted in 22 points, while the Lions forced only 10 Greyhound turnovers that led to 10 points.

With the win, the Lions improve to 17-7 on the season and 6-7 in the Lone Star Conference. Head coach Sam Walker picks up his 148th career LSC win.

"e Lions recorded their 60th win in the last three seasons after recording 19 wins in 2013-14, 24 wins in 2014-15 and currently sitting on 17 wins in 2015-16.

A&M-Commerce will stay at home and close out the regular season with Tarleton State on Sat-urday, February 27 in "e Field House. "e Tex-ans topped then league-leading West Texas 87-82 Saturday in Stephenville. "e Lions are locked into the sixth seed for the looming LSC Tourna-ment in Allen that starts March 3.

Lions bite dogs