The Lion women (7-6 overall; 2-2 in LSC) saw their three-game winning streak come to an end on Wednesday after a gutsy comeback-effort fell short, with the Cameron Aggies (5-7 overall; 2-1 in LSC) narrowly escaping with a 65-64 win.
Though the first half was hard-fought and closely contested, the Aggies ultimately wrestled the lead away at the 10:39 mark, and would not relinquish it for nearly a half hour of play. Cameron would go on to lead by as many as 12 early in the second half, but would slowly lose ground to a surging Lions team. With only 1:17 left in the game, freshman forward Artaejah Gay would convert a layup to at last reclaim the lead. Yet Cameron quickly struck back with a Charron Montgomery jumper to reclaim the lead. The Lions found themselves with an inbound opportunity with 3.8 seconds remaining, but the storybook ending was not to be.
In addition to nearly securing the win for the Lions, Gay tied her career highs in both points (14) and rebounds (9), adding an assist, a steal and a block in 22 minutes of play. Not the only freshman to put up respectable numbers, Princess Davis added 12 points, three rebounds and three assists.
Junior center Kiana Evans had one of her better games as a Lion, matching her season-high four steals while adding seven points, five rebounds and two steals in only 16 minutes of play. Fellow junior Gabby Scott nearly doubled up on her season high for assists, logging seven to go with eight points and a steal.
Senior forward La’TishaHearne was close to her fourth double-double of the season with nine points and nine rebounds while senior guard Ashlee Johnson managed 10 points despite being hampered with early foul trouble.
Defensively, the Lions accomplished their mission of limiting Cameron’s most lethal weapons. Jazzmine Robinson, the LSC-leader in scoring, was held to a nine points and seven boards while Brandi Leal and Jade Herl, the top two LSC leaders in threes per game, were held to a combined 4 of 12 shooting from deep. The Aggies instead had to rely primarily upon two bench players to secure the victory. The aforementioned Montgomery was perfect offensively, draining all seven of her field goal attempts and all four of her free throw attempts en route to an 18 point outing to lead all scorers. On the defensive end, junior forward DJ Vallier wrought havoc in the paint with 10 boards (nine of them defensive) and a jaw-dropping six blocks to accompany her seven points.
A&M-Commerce was highly effective on the offensive glass with 20 offensive boards, and also did a good job with ball security, limiting themselves to 13 turnovers compared to Cameron’s 24. Yet the difference for the Aggies was their superior shooting, outperforming the Lions both from the field (23-44 vs. 26-72) and from the line (14-19 vs. 5-11).
With the win, Cameron brings the all-time series to almost even, with the Lions sporting the smallest of advantages at 21-20. They will have to get set for their next game very quickly, as they are slated to play Texas Woman’s (10-5 overall; 3-1 in LSC) tomorrow night in Denton.
As for the Lions, they’ll have a few days off before their home stand continues with their final non-conference opponents of the regular season, a rematch with the McMurryWarhawks (2-15). That game is scheduled for Saturday, January 17 at 4:00 p.m. in the Field House.