The women’s basketball team’s conference record suffered another setback this weekend, as the Lady Aggies of Cameron University stole a 58-54 win from the Wildcats in Lawton, Okla.

“We just weren’t able to convert down the stretch,” said head Coach Shawna Lavender. “We gave them too many second chances.”

Although the ‘Cats maintained a consistent lead for the majority of the second half, it was never significant enough to come away with a win.The highest point deficit in the Wildcats’ favor was up to five points.

With just under 3:00 on the clock, Paige Parliament, freshman center, banked a three-pointer that gave ACU a 52-51 lead, and less than a minute later made a free throw to make the score 53-52.

“I saw I had the open shot and so I took it,” Parliament said. “It felt good to put us in the lead at the time.”

However, Julie Paunovic of the Lady Aggies struck back with an offensive rebound for two, followed by a layup with less than a minute to go, making it a 56-53 game.

Despite Parliaments efforts, the Wildcats couldn’t maintain the lead and slowly fell behind.

With only five second left in the contest, sophomore guard Mack Lankford was fouled on a three-point attempt. With a chance to tie up the game, Lankford made one shot and purposely missed the last.

In a desperate attempt to regain possession, Lankford fouled Alexis Williams with the rebound, allowing Williams to score two more.

“Like I’ve said all year, we have to be able to play for 40 minutes,” Lavender said.

This loss drops the Wildcats into 1oth place in the 11-team conference. In order to make the LSC Post-Season Tournament, the ‘Cats would have to jump up two spots in the polls, to number eight. ACU is two whole games behind the eighth and ninth teams; Eastern New Mexico and Texas Woman’s.

Lankford led the game overall in scoring with 26 points, five rebound, four assists, and three steals, followed by Renata Marquez with 12 points and six rebounds.

ACU’s tournament hopes are not entirely gone, as they have several upcoming conference games.

The ‘Cats hit the road Wednesday to take on West Texas A&M, and then return to Abilene to face Eastern New Mexico in Moody Coliseum Saturday to play Eastern New Mexico.

“We are going to have to win some big games down the stretch in order to get into the Lone Star Conference tournament,” Lavender said. “We are capable of doing so, we just have to have everyone playing together every time that we step onto the floor.”