SAN ANGELO, Texas (Feb. 1, 2012) ¬¬— Cameron was in it to win it against Angelo State Wednesday night, but fell a point short in overtime, 54-53.

The Aggies (13-6, 9-5) began overtime rolling, as the team pulled ahead in the first 20 seconds on a huge three by Alexis Williams. The RamBelles (11-8, 9-4) would respond with a quick lay-up to pull to within one. But once again, Williams would hit a clutch three to put the lead back up to four with 2:32 left in overtime.  But the final two minutes did not go in favor of the road team, as Cameron scored only one free throw for the rest of the game, allowing ASU to pull ahead for good with 1:14 left to play.

“We got the lead in overtime and just didn’t execute,” said Head Coach Tom Webb. “We gave up some easy baskets and it hurt us. Offensively, we didn’t do much. We struggled to get it inside …. but it was really the offense in general. It was hard for us. As a whole, it was a pretty ugly game.”

At the start of the game, the Aggies were rolling. The team pulled ahead early and never looked back in the first half, cruising into halftime with a 25-23 lead. Julie Paunovic and Sabelle Diata led the scoring for the visitors in the half, as each total seven points. CU led by seven at one point, but failed to keep the RamBelles at bay.

The home team came out aggressive in the second half, sensing its last opportunity to make it a game. The teams traded leads early in the half, but once again it was Cameron that began to distance itself, pulling ahead by seven with 4:11 left to play on a Williams three pointer. But from there, the game changed. ASU locked down the Aggies, preventing them from scoring another bucket, while scoring seven points in the final minutes to tie the game up.

According to Webb, the defenses cancelled each other out, forcing the game to come down to executing in crunch time.

“Both teams are going to play some defense, and as a whole, we were pretty good defensively … not great,” he said. “In the end, a couple things went there way and didn’t go our way.”

Sabelle Diata led the Aggies in rebounds with 13 and tied with Paunovic with a team-high 14 points.The loss tonight dropped Cameron into fifth place in the conference, as West Texas A&M and Angelo State jumped into third and fourth tonight, but Webb said there is still plenty of ball to play.

“Number one, we’ve just got to plug away,” he said. “It’s a long conference season. We (teams in the LSC) are playing for the same thing; a good play-off seed. You have to go back at it … it can’t affect you.”

The Aggies will look to get back on a winning streak to close out the season as it hosts Abilene Christian (8-11, 3-10) at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Aggie Gym.

“It’ll be great to be home,” Webb said. “But, they are fighting for their life too. It will be a test of two wills to see who wins.”