STEPHENVILLE, Texas–  The charity stripe proved to be the difference in the Cameron men's 71-61 loss at Tarleton State Saturday evening.
 
Cameron shot 22-for-58 from the field and Tarleton State shot 22-for-51 with the Aggies edging the Texans 7 to 4 at the arc, but fouls plagued the Aggies as TSU would shoot 79% at the free throw line (23-29) over CU's 10-for-15 effort in the Texans' first conference win.
 
Cameron opened the game with a 7-0 start, however, the Aggies would experience a seven minute scoring drought following nine turnovers and six fouls as the Texans scored 14 consecutive points to lead 14-7. The Ags battled back with each team trading the lead twice, but TSU took the 31-28 edge at the break after going 14-for-18 at the line in a half where both sides shot an even 35% from the field.
 
The Aggies scored on a layup and three-pointer to begin the second half with a two point advantage, but a TSU layup tied the game, and the Aggies would trail until the 5:31 marker where they took a 58-57 lead. However, the Texans responded by scoring 14 points in the final five minutes while holding CU to five to win 71-61.
 
While both sides each had 20 turnovers on the night, CU would score 23 points off the takeaways to TSU's 19. However, Tarleton State had eight rebounds over the Aggies at 40.
 
Three Aggies scored in double figures with Cameron Lee earning a team high 15 points with three made treys. JV Long scored 13 points and Deondre Ray was one behind him with 12, and also grabbed a team high seven rebounds.
 
Tarleton State had two with 19 points each in Charles Hill and EJ Reed. Reed also had a game high 12 boards for a double-double.

With the loss, the Aggies move to 8-6 overall and 1-1 in the LSC, and Tarleton State moves to 11-2 and 1-0 in league action.
 
Cameron will continue its road trip to face Eastern New Mexico on Thursday.