Aggie men notch second LSC win

GAME BOXSCORE»

LAWTON, Okla. (Feb. 19) - Led by Arthur Trousdell's team-high 20 points, the Cameron men's basketball team rallied from 12 points down in the second half to record its second Lone Star Conference North Division win of the season Saturday at Aggie Gym.

Cameron posted a 69-64 win over Northeastern State, ending a seven-game losing streak to NSU while improving to 14-11 overall and 2-8 in league play. The victory also assured Coach Garrette Mantle's squad of its first winning season since the 1997-98 campaign.

Trousdell led a trio of Aggie players in double figures, hitting 8-of-11 from the field while adding five rebounds and a steal. Eric Moore added 15 points off the bench, while Justin Harris was 9-of-9 at the free throw line to finish with 14.

Northeastern State (6-19, 2-8 LSC North) got a game-high 24 points from Shad Roome and 10 from Marcus Hines.

Cameron trailed by as many as 12 points on two occassions and didn't take its first lead of the game until a pair of free throws by Moore put the Aggies up 63-61 with just over two minutes to play in the game. The tosses sparked a string of eight straight Cameron charity tosses down the stretch that produced the Aggies' first win over the Redmen since an 89-83 double-overtime victory on Feb. 22, 2001.

The Aggies finished the game with a 16-point scoring advantage at the line, converting 27 of 32 free throw attempts in the game. Northeastern out-shot the Aggies 46.2 percent to 40.4 percent from the field, but committed 13 turnovers to Cameron's 10. Each team collected 30 rebounds in the game.

Northeastern jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead Saturday and led by eight at 15-7 on a Shiloh Shores layup with 14:39 left in the opening period. The Redmen lead grew to 12 on a Josh Talley three-pointer at the 8:25 mark before NSU settled for a 36-29 halftime lead.

A 6-1 run to open the second frame had the lead back up to 12 at 42-30 and the Redmen still held a double-digit lead (49-39) on a Hines jumper with 13:32 to play.

But Cameron closed the gap with an 8-0 run capped by a Melvin Mitchell layup and tied the score at 53-53 on Trousdell's jumper with 7:39 to play. The Aggies matched NSU point-for-point over the next five minutes before Moore's free throws put Cameron on top for the first time.

Roome answered with a layup for the Redmen, but Moore hit two more free throws and Northeastern missed its final four shots from the field while being forced to send the Aggies repeatedly to the line. Cameron didn't have a field goal over the final 4:42 of the contest, but went 8-of-10 from the line the rest of the way.

Cameron will look to make it two in a row Tuesday, visiting 19th-ranked Southwestern Oklahoma, which dropped a 76-74 decision at home to Central Oklahoma on Saturday.