WARRENSBURG, Mo. – The Cameron University men's basketball team lost a close game to Maryville, 83-82, on Friday, despite a 27 point outing from Bryce Elie.

Elie, a senior transfer from Queens, N.Y., led all scorers while shooting 9-14 from the field, 3-5 from the perimeter and hitting on six of his seven free throws; he also grabbed four rebounds in the loss.

After falling behind early in the first half 12-4, Cameron surged back to tie the game up at 19 points with 13 minutes to go. The two teams went back and forth from there until Maryville used a 9-3 run to go into the break leading 44-38. Elie had 10 points at the half, while MU's Casey Teson had 10 points at the break as well. 

The Aggies opened the second half with a bucket from Jalen Nicholas, but the Saints responded with four straight points to extend their lead to eight. They would hold that for a few minutes until Cameron made their run, scoring eight straight to tie the game 55-55 at the 12:27 mark. MU responded with an 11-2 to extend their lead back out to nine.

Cameron slowly made their way back, powered by Elie's versatile scoring, cutting the lead to just two with just less than three minutes left in the game. The two teams traded buckets back and forth for the next two minutes and with just 49 seconds left, Johann Tate hit a three to get CU to within one point. After an Aggie timeout, MU missed a layup to give the Black and Gold a chance to take the lead, but a missed layup of their own, gave the Saints the ball back with four seconds, forcing Cameron to foul. Teejay Bogan made both free throws to put his team up three, but then MU fouled Zach Dumas on a three point shot, sending him to the line with a chance to tie the game. Dumas made his first two shots, but missed the third as Berry sealed the game for the Saints with a rebound.

While, Elie led the Aggies with his 27 points, Nicholas stepped up with a near double-double with 13 points and nine rebounds; JV Long also had 13 points for the Black and Gold. As a team, CU shot just under 50 percent from the field, while going 8-20 from three and 14-17 from the charity stripe. On the defensive end, the Ags had nine steals, with Tate leading the way with three.

Berry finished the game leading the Saints with 22 points and seven rebounds, while four others scored in double-figures. They shot 53.4 percent from the field and went 12-14 from the charity stripe.

Cameron is now 2-2 on the young season while Maryville stays perfect at 3-0 with the win.

The Aggies will next be in action on Tuesday, Nov. 21, as they visit regional foe Dallas Baptist, who is 2-0 this season and plays UT Permian Basin on Saturday.