Cameron falls to No. 19 Angelo State
January 5, 2004SAN ANGELO, Texas (Jan. 5) - A season-low shooting percentage and a 14-40 scoring deficit in the paint spelled defeat for the Cameron women's basketball team Monday night.
Coach Dick Halterman's Lady Aggies shot just 28.3 percent from the field and surrendered a game-high 25 points to ASU center Natalja Tsurbakova, losing 67-48 in Lone Star Conference crossover action at ASU's Stephens Arena.
Cameron (6-5) will continue LSC crossover action at home later this week. The Lady Aggies will host Eastern New Mexico on Thursday at 6 p.m., before squaring off with West Texas A&M in a Saturday afternoon contest scheduled to tipoff at 2 p.m.
Sophomore center Melisa Steen led Cameron with 14 points on 6-of-15 shooting on Saturday against Angelo State, which entered the contest ranked 19th in the latest USA Today/ESPN/WBCA Top 25 poll. Steen also collected a team-high seven rebounds and had a season-high three blocked shots.
But the Lady Aggies had no answer for Tsurbakova. The 6-3 junior from Estonia was 10-of-14 from the floor and a perfect 5-of-5 from the free throw line for the Rambelles, who improved to 10-0 with the win. Tsurbakova also tallied a game-high five blocked shots and pulled down five rebounds.
Sophomore Brittany Cooksey, fresh off a 29-point effort in Saturday's win over Abilene Christian, was the only other Cameron player in double figures. The sophomore from Bristow had 11 points to go with four rebounds. In addition to Tsurbakova, three other ASU players scored in double figures, including 11 points from reserve Courtney Nowlin.
Angelo State led 36-20 at halftime, shooting in impressive 16-of-27 (.593) from the field in the first half. Cameron's only lead of the game came at the 17:33 mark of the opening period, when Cooksey connected on a three-pointer to put the Lady Aggies up 3-2.
