AGGIES STUN NUMBER ONE RANKED LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN
By Jimm Alley
Sports Editor
On Feb. 12 the Cameron Aggies men’s basketball team went up against number one ranked Lubbock Christian in the Aggie gym.
Through the early parts of the first half, Lubbock Christian was in control until the Aggies came charging back with a 17-0 run late in the period to come out on top at halftime 41-34
The Aggies came out in the second half, firing on all cylinders. At one point, the Aggies had an 11 point lead over the Chaps, but things would get a lot closer in the final minutes.
With under a minute to play, the Aggies were on top leading by one, until a three-pointer from LCU made it a 73-71 game with only 12 seconds on the clock. This is when sophomore forward Connor Slater made the play of the night.
Slater quickly made it to the paint and hit a beautiful layup to tie the game with barely a second left and got the shooting foul on top of it.
Slater takes his place at the free-throw line. The Aggie fans fall silent as they wait in anxious hopefulness. Slater takes his shot, and the ball bounces off the rim. We are going to overtime.
The first overtime period was a back and forth shoot-out, with both teams scoring eight points to take the game into a second overtime period.
Brock Schreiner sank a critical three-pointer with 24 seconds left to put the Aggies in the lead and followed up with two more free throws to secure the thrilling win for the team.
Schreiner himself had a special reason to celebrate after the game as he officially reached the 1,000 point mark for his career at Cameron. Schreiner finished the game scoring 20 points with seven rebounds and three assists on top of it.
Slater also had a big night, tallying 18 points and eight rebounds. He quickly shook off the missed free throw at the end of regulation and returned to form in overtime.
“That’s the good thing about basketball,” Slater said. “You gotta move on from plays, and you can’t let that mess with you. We go out there and make a big play, then move on to the next.”
This is the Aggies’ second win with new Head coach Jeff Mahoney who took over in January. The team has had a bit of a turnaround through the second half of the season with Mahoney at the helm. The team was able to win three out of their last eight games to end the season. Before that stretch, they had only managed to win two games.
This win is monumental for the Aggies and is sure to give this team something to be proud of after a very up-and-down season full of distractions.
The Aggies completed their season 5-18 overall and 3-13 in conference play, sadly finishing in last place in the Lonestar Conference rankings.