STEPHENVILLE – Despite a career high scoring performance from Kathy Thomas, Tarleton State came up just short in Saturday night's Lone Star Conference game with Cameron as the TexAnns fell 65-62.
 
The game started in a defensive battle as Thomas got the TexAnns on the board with a 3-ball to put Tarleton up 3-2. The teams only added a bucket each over the next five minutes and the game's first seven minutes went by with a 5-5 tie.
 
Travanti Downes drilled a jumper with 12:29 left in the opening half to get the offense started in the game. Averie Mack followed up with a layup to give the TexAnns, what would be, their biggest lead of the game at four with 12:19 left in the first half.
 
Cameron answered back with four unanswered to tie it up again before Mack drilled a triple to push the lead back to three at the 10:54 mark. From there, however, the teams went back-and-forth over the rest of the half and the Aggies went into halftime with a 28-23 lead.
 
After Cameron opened the new half by extending the lead to seven, Tarleton got six straight points on two free throws from Karli Moore, a layup from Ikpeaku Iwobi and a jumper from Thomas to pull within one at 16:12.
 
Tarleton continued to claw back over the next three minutes and retook the lead at 13:36 when Meagan O'Dell connected for a triple to make it 38-36 in Tarleton's favor. The teams jockeyed for position over the next six minutes until the Aggies went on a 12-4 run to put the TexAnns behind 51-60 with 2:27 to play.
 
Thomas drilled a 3-ball to pull within six and did her part down the stretch, scoring 11 of her 26 points in the final 2:27 for all of the TexAnn points over that stretch. It wasn't quite enough, however, as Cameron held on for the win.
 
The senior guard from Flint, Michigan scored her career-high 26 points on 8-17 shooting from the floor, including 5-10 from downtown, to go along with 5-7 at the charity stripe. Iwobi also cracked double figures and led all rebounders with 11 boards to earn her ninth career double-double.
 
Mack and Bailey Wipff each scored seven while Moore chipped in five. Downes scored four and O'Dell added three to round out the scoring for Tarleton. As a team, Tarleton shot just 30 percent from the floor compared to 51 percent by Cameron.
 
Tarleton did outrebound the Aggies 41-35, including 21-3 on the offensive end that led to a 16-2 scoring difference on second-chance points, while also forcing 22 Cameron turnovers.
 
The TexAnns will be back in action Wednesday night in Wisdom Gym to host Angelo State at 5:30 p.m.