BEAUMONT, Texas – The Lamar Lady Cardinals saw a remarkable comeback bid fall just short in a 59-55 loss to visiting Stephen F. Austin in a Southland conference basketball game Thursday evening.

The Lady Cardinals (8-10 overall, 5-2 Southland) trailed by as many as 21 points in the first half before staging a furious rally that saw them take a two-point lead with eight minutes remaining, only to see SFA outscore Lamar 11-5 the rest of the way.

“The first 10 minutes of the game, we did not play Lamar basketball, and that hurt us,” Lamar coach Robin Harmony said. “We battled back and never quit, but that comeback took a lot out of us.”

Lamar shot just 28.6 percent (8-of-28) in the first half and 32.2 percent (19-of-59) for the game. After draining a school-record 18 3-pointers in Saturday's win at Northwestern State, Lamar was just 4-of-19 (21.1 percent) from beyond the arc.

“We missed too many shots, including too many layups,” Harmony lamented. “We also went 13-of-22 from the foul line. That's a lot of points we left out there. “You have to make those shots.”

JaMeisha Edwards led Lamar with 17 points, while April Levy came off the bench to score a career-high 13 points for Lamar.

“I knew I had to be ready when my name was called,” Levy said. “I know I have to do my part.”

SFA (12-5, 5-1) received 16 points apiece from Taylor Ross and Porsha Roberts. SFA, which moved into second place in the conference, a half-game ahead of Lamar, outscored the Lady Cardinals 40-20 in the paint.

“We let them penetrate too often,” Harmony said. They made their layups, and that was a big difference.”

Dominique Edwards had a game-high 11 rebounds for Lamar, moving into ninth place on the school's all-time list with 611 career rebounds. Edwards added six points to boost her career total to 991 points.

Caroline Adesulu had two blocks to move into sole possession of 10^th place on Lamar's career chart with 55.

The Lady Cardinals look to bounce back when they travel to Houston Baptist at 4 p.m. Saturday. That game will air live on KLVI (AM 560) and will be simulcast on www.LamarCardinals.com.

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