Aggies come up short against No. 22 Bulldogs

GAME BOXSCORE >>

LAWTON, Okla. (Feb. 1) - A made shot here; a missed rebound there. That proved to be the difference Tuesday as the Cameron men's basketball team fell to 0-5 in Lone Star Conference play with a 68-62 loss to 22nd-ranked Southwestern Oklahoma.

Coach Garrette Mantle's Aggies led by one at halftime, 32-31, but couldn't come up with the big plays they needed down the stretch, slipping to 12-8 overall on the year. Cameron will take its sixth crack at breaking in to the conference win column on Saturday, travelling to Stephenville, Texas, to face Tarleton State.

Junior center Arthur Trousdell led all players in the game with 25 points and Eric Moore added 13 for the Aggies. But Cameron, which got out to an early lead on the Bulldogs by hitting its first five shots from the floor, shot just 1-of-5 over the final five minutes.

Trousdell's jumper with 1:39 remaining pulled Cameron within three at 64-61, but Southwestern (17-3, 4-1 LSC North) answered with a bucket and two of its three free throws in the game with six seconds left to secure the win.

Lee J. Kirkpatrick led the Bulldogs with 20 points. Lonnie Cooks added 15 and last week's Co-LSC North Player of the Week, Jamaal Shell, finished with 14. Southwestern outrebounded the Aggies 38-23 and shot 53.6 percent from the field in the second half.

Cameron raced to an early 12-5 lead on solid outside shooting. The Aggies were 4-for-4 from three-point range when Moore connected from long range to make it 19-13 with just under 14 minutes left in the half. The lead grew to eight moments later when Marcus Girtmon put in a layup to give the Aggies their biggest advantage of the contest.

Southwestern answered with an 8-0 run to knot the score at 21-21 and took its first lead of the game on an Ike Smith three-pointer at the 6:27 mark that made it 24-23 Bulldogs.

Cameron led by three early in the second half on a jumper by Trousdell, but Southwestern took command with a 15-5 surge capped by a Kirkpatrick rebound and putback with 14:29 to play.

The Aggies rallied on back-to-back buckets by Trousdell to forge the sixth tie of the game at 48-48 near the 11-minute mark, but the Bulldogs again responded - this time with a 13-3 run to build their biggest lead of the game at 61-51. Sean Ormsby got the Aggies within seven with a three-pointer with just under six minutes to play, but the Aggies converted just one field goal the rest of the way.