Rambelles slip by Lions

The Angelo State Rambelles erased a six-point halftime deficit and held off an Texas A&M University-Commerce comeback attempt in the game’s final two minutes to edge the Lions 55-54 in the Lone Star Conference opener for both teams on Thursday at The Field House.
 
The loss negated an otherwise stellar effort from Breanna Harris, who finished with a game-high 21 points and pulled in 13 rebounds, 10 of which were offensive; however, she was the only Lion (1-9, 0-1 LSC) to finish in double figures as the Lions shot just 24.7 percent from the floor for the game, including just 22.2 percent in the second half. 
 
The Lions, who led by as much as 10 points late in the first half and took a 26-20 lead into the break, were up as late as the 8:17 mark of the second half before a 13-0 run by the Rambelles (7-4, 1-0 LSC) gave them the lead for good. They pushed the advantage to its largest at 48-40 with less than six minutes to play, but Harris almost single-handedly kept the Lions within striking distance, and after Symone Brown canned a three from the top of the key, the Lions trailed by one with less than a minute to play.
 
They then forced an ASU turnover and had three shots at the basket in the final 10 seconds of the game, none of which fell, and allowed the Rambelles to escape with the one-point win.
 
Amanda Weaver led ASU with 16 points, including three three-point buckets, with 12 points coming in the second half. ASU shot just 34.5 percent from the field for the game, but hit at a 56-percent clip in the second period and made five three-point buckets following a first half that saw them hit just one of 11 tries from beyond the arc.
 
The Lions still won the edge on the glass 53-46, and pulled in 23 offensive boards to dominate the Rambelles in second-chance points 20-4. 
 
Devin Oliver added nine points for A&M-Commerce, but no other Lion had more than the five points from Alize Pegue, Zenobia Winbush and Brown, despite eight players cracking the scoring column.
 
Harris nearly had a double-double in the first half with nine points and eight rebounds, but it was the Lion defense that was the story, holding the Rambelles to just 6-for-33 shooting (18.2 percent) in the opening period.
 
The teams went back and forth early on, with the Lions finding themselves down 9-6 less than eight minutes into the game. But the first of two threes from Oliver knotted the score, and sparked a 12-4 run that vaulted them to an 18-14 lead.
 
Oliver added another three later in the half and five straight points from Harris pushed the lead to its peak, 24-14, with just 2:13 remaining before ASU’s Amanda Weaver added four late points to send things to the break with the Lions up 26-20.
 
The Lions will try and re-crack the win column on Saturday when they continue conference play against Midwestern State. Tip is set for 2:00 p.m. at The Field House and will be immediately followed by the Lion men’s team.