LAWTON, Okla. (Jan. 25, 2012) ¬¬— The Cameron Aggies played a near perfect game Wednesday night against Tarleton State, the number four ranked team in the country, but in the end fell three points short in its bid for an upset.

“We had the number four team in the country comes in … and we had the chance to get them,” said Head Coach Wade Alexander. “We just didn’t make some plays we needed to, but at the same time played pretty well. We played hard the whole game, no let up. That’s why we gave ourselves a chance at the end of the game”

“When you play team like that, it’s going to be the team that plays perfect that will win. We played almost perfect.”

Tarleton (18-1, 10-0) came out scoring first, but with each made shot the Aggies (12-7, 7-4) had an answer. Within the final two minutes, Cameron made its move. The Black and Gold took its first lead of the game on a deep three by sophomore Craig Foster. Tarleton would respond with a free throw to tie the game at 27, but the home team responded with back to back buckets by seniors Milton Garner and Walter Battle to take a four point lead into the half.

“Walter Battle is coming along better every game,” Alexander said. “We need that inside presence. Going down the stretch he’s going to get us some quality minutes.”

In the second half, Tarleton showed why it is national ranked, going on a run, taking the lead and driving it up a 12 points 11 minutes into the half. But Cameron would respond down the stretch with key buckets by Garner, Battle, senior Thomas Razor and junior Dol Kutey, to set the team up with a chance. After fouling, the Aggies rebounded the ball with seven seconds left in the game and immediately went on the offensive. The ball found Garner’s hands with a chance to tie, but his shot went long as the buzzer sounded, ending in a 65-62 victory for the visitors.

For Alexander, there were some bright spots, but also missed opportunities.

“We didn’t defend nearly as well as we needed to, but they also just jumped up and made some shots,” he said. “They have the ability to work the clock to 10 seconds or so, take a shot and make it. That makes a team tired, trying to defend that.”

“One thing we improved on that we have been working on was rebounding. We came in and did a whole lot better job of rebounding. We didn’t turn the ball over very much, only 6 in the game. We had a couple chances where we needed to get to the basket and get to the line in the first half. We just didn’t recognize the situation.

The loss is the third conference loss in a row for the Aggies, but it has come during the toughest stretch in the season. The team will look to rebound against Texas A&M-Commerce (6-12, 1-9) at 4 p.m. Saturday.

“When we came into this stretch of games, we thought we’d like to win one out of four; well really we wanted to split … but we’re ok,” he said. “It’s not panic time. If play like we did tonight against Commerce, we came do damage down the stretch. We also get (Vinicius) Telo back soon … that’s a huge lift.”