LAWTON, Okla. (Jan. 21, 2012) ­­— Cameron fell short in its bid to exact revenge on its Red River Rivals Saturday afternoon, as the Aggies were out rebounded 45-28, en route to a 66-51 loss the Mustangs in the Aggie Gym.

“They just whopped up us on the boards,” said Head Coach Wade Alexander. “It was kind of same issues from the last game (against MSU on Wednesday). They are beating us in the post. That hurt us tonight, as well as last night. They are just bigger. If we see them again, we’ll probably have to figure out a different way to attack them. Hopefully at that point, (junior Vinicius) Telo will be back. That will give us an extra body in the post.”

The game was closer than the score reads, as the Aggies (10-5, 7-3) fed off the energy of more than 400 uniformed, active-duty military personnel to battle with the Mustangs (15-1, 8-1), currently second place in the Lone Star Conference.

The Black and Gold came out firing, pulling ahead to an early 11-5 lead, forcing the Mustangs to call an early timeout. Cameron would continue to build a lead, pushing it to nine, 19-10, at the 7-mintue mark on a three pointer by senior Milton Garner. However, MSU would go on a 15-2 run to finish out the half and head into the locker room with a 25-21 lead.

In the second half, Cameron continued to battle, pulling the game to within one on four separate occasions, but was unable to capitalize. The Aggies were outscored on second chance points in the half, 13-2, as well as the bench scoring, 18-0.

“We wanted to defend better tonight,” Alexander said. “We didn’t do that the other night, and not second half tonight. I thought we could score against them, and we didn’t score near as well as we needed to. We allowed way too many offensive rebounds … that was also terrible. We’ve just got to do a better job than we did tonight.”

Garner led the team offensively, with 15 points, including 3-6 from beyond the arc. Sophomore Desmond Henry poured in 13 points, while adding a team-high eight rebounds.

In spite of the loss, Alexander said he is looking forward to getting back on the court, as Cameron hosts Bacone College at 6 p.m. Monday in the Aggie Gym.

“Monday we have a chance to come out and get a win,” he said. “That can get it going again. The season is just like the games, it’s a game of runs. Somebody stops your runs, as far as wins; you’ve got to get it back again. Monday we can get on track and start a winning streak.”