On the evening of Jan. 18, the Cameron men’s basketball team lost 80-76 to Midwestern State University (MSU) in their second and final matchup during rivalry week.
The loss split the series even between the two teams.
The Aggies hung with the Mustangs initially but both the MSU offense and defense proved too much for Cameron in the first half.
MSU capitalized on most of their rebounds and steals throughout much of the first half, regularly taking the ball to the goal after a steal or Cameron’s missed goals.
The Mustangs also proved lethal with their execution of 3 pointers throughout the game.
By the end of the first half, the Aggies would be behind by 18 points, ensuring an uphill battle for the second half.
MSU came out fighting after halftime, extending the lead to 25 points in the first minutes of the second half.
In the last twelve minutes of the game, the Aggies began to finally hit their stride, chipping away at the Mustangs comfortable lead by capitalizing play by play on the performance of their defense.
The late-game surge would not be enough for the Aggies. The shortcomings of the early part of the game proved insurmountable for the team, even as they came within 4 points of matching and defeating their rival.
The Aggies may have fell short in the first half, but they came back in rare fashion to create a nail-biting game in the final moments of the game.
If the Aggies had more time, perhaps they could have overcome their deficit and racked up another win.
However, the last game of rivalry week for the men’s team resulted in a loss.
Cameron’s men’s coach Andrew Brown was thoroughly disappointed in his team’s performance during the first part of the game.
“I don’t feel good about the first half and I don’t feel good about the first nine minutes of the second half,” Brown said. “I thought our defensive effort and energy was an embarrassment. And I’ve never said that since I’ve been here.”
Coach Brown felt that his players underperformed defensively and gave a low energy and effort performance for the majority of the game.
“It seemed like we had to try to get it back in the last ten minutes of the game and we had to be perfect,” Brown said. “The problem is, it is hard to be perfect.”
Cameron sophomore guard Andrew Nguyen who topped the list of points scored by the Aggies knew that the team was in trouble after the first half.
“It’s always tough coming back from behind with any team, especially coming back from being down twenty points,” said Nguyen. “So we knew that we needed to come out in the second half with a lot more energy.”
Unfortunately, the energy of the Aggies was not enough.