TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The Cameron Aggies (17-9, 7-4 LSC) men’s basketball team secured a berth in the 2011 Lone Star Conference Basketball Championships tonight with a hard-fought 69-64 over LSC foe Northeastern State (9-16, 4-7) on Wednesday night.

It is their second berth in the playoffs in three years after advancing to Bartlesville at the end of the 2008-09 season.

The two teams traded leads early on with the Riverhawks posting a five point lead, up 17-12 with 13:15 to go in the first half.

Cameron fought back to tie the game 17-17 on a Terry Dawson layup before the team streaked out to an eight point lead on the heels of a Vinicius Telo trey with 8:03 remaining, 20-28.

The Ags closed the half on a 14-9 to take a 13 point, 42-29 lead into the break.

After the half, Cameron posted the first four points to build a 17 point lead for the first time in the game.

The Riverhawks quickly closed the gap and were within five at 62-57 with 6:22 remaining.

Northeastern closed the gap to two points at 66-64 with 2:51 to go but were unable to add any more points to the board as the Aggies came up clean at the charity stripe to close the game.

Milton Garner led the Aggies in scoring with 21 points and was perfect from the free throw line (11 of 11). He also added two dishes and two steals to his nightly stat line.

For the game, the Aggies shot 40.7 percent from the field (22 of 54) and 87 percent (20 of 23) from the line. They also outworked the Riverhawks on the boards by a 34-29 advantage.
 
The Aggies complete their home schedule by hosting No. 7 Central Oklahoma in Aggie Gym for Senior Night as a part of Super Homecoming Weekend. Tip off is set for 4 p.m.

Tickets to the LSC Playoffs are also available by contacting the Cameron Department of Athletics front desk at (580) 581-2302.

Berth in Victory at Northeastern State, 69-64