LAWTON – The Cameron women's basketball remarkable season ends with a 96-66 loss to No. 1 Lubbock Christian in the NCAA Division II South Central Regional semifinal on Saturday evening.

The Cameron Aggies found out they earned a spot as a five seed in the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament last Sunday and then a few days later that, because of COVID-19 precautions in the Arkansas Tech program, their first game in the tournament would be a rematch with the team that beat them in the Lone Star Conference Tournament last Friday, the top seed Lubbock Christian.

Cameron ran into a red-hot LCU team that was determined to make it to the Sweet 16, a feat they accomplished two years ago when they continued on to win the National Championship. This Lady Chap squad was as dominant as they have been all season on Friday, shooting over 65 percent from the field, going 9-17 from three, and 31-38 from the charity stripe.

Like their previous meeting, the Aggies hung around with the top team in the nation early in the first quarter as a LaKya Leslie jumper off an assist from Maighan Hedge tied the game at seven just prior to the first media timeout of the contest. From there, LCU went on a 13-1 run to end the period up 20-8.

Another made bucket by Leslie opened the second, but LCU answered with an 11-0 run to extend their lead out to 21. They continued to knock down shots and by the end of the first half, the Lady Chaps led the Aggies 41-19.

The Black and Gold shot just 29.2 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes of action, going 2-7 from three and 3-6 from the foul line. They also turned the ball over 15 times in the first half, which was big considering they have only turned it over more than 15 times in a game five times since the start of February.

Hedge led the Aggies with six points at the break, while Katie King and Leslie both had five points.

Lubbock Christian used a 32-point third quarter to extend their lead to 33 heading into the final frame. It stretched to as much as 38 in the second half, before a late CU run capped by a Michaela James cut it to 30, with a final score of 96-66.

The Aggies were able to shoot 50 percent from the field and 90 percent from the charity stripe in the second half but managed only two made triples as LCU started to pull away. They finished the game shooting 41.7 percent from the floor, just 21.1 percent from three, and 75 percent from the free throw line.

Hedge finished the night with 17 points, moving her into eight place on the Cameron all-time scoring list with 1,302 career points in three seasons with the Aggies. She now needs just 300 points next season to tie the Cameron women's basketball scoring record (1,602 by Jo Tashuda). Hedge was 8-13 from the field against LCU, adding two steals and two assists but turning it over seven times in the loss.

The freshman King finished her first season at Cameron with back-to-back double-figure scoring games, adding 11 points during Saturday's game after scoring a team-high 18 last week against LCU. The Harrah, Okla. native was 4-9 from the field and also had a pair of helpers in the loss.

James added seven points off the Aggie bench, getting five of those from the charity stripe, as did Karley Miller, while Leslie and Delecia Brown both had five point nights.

Ashton Duncan knocked down six triples for Lubbock Christian, finishing with a game-high 22 points, while Allie Schulte added 21 on 6-9 shooting from the field. The two were a combined 12-12 from the foul line in the win.

Lubbock Christian moved on to face the winner of the other semifinal, two-seed Southwestern Oklahoma State against three-seed Texas A&M-Commerce, in the regional final on Monday.  

Cameron ends their season with an 11-8 record, but their 8-3 mark in the months of February and March gives head coach Emma Andrews and assistant Jeff Mahoney a lot of positive momentum to build on as the program starts to prepare for the 2021-22 season.