SAN ANGELO – The Angelo State women's basketball team led most of the contest and fought valiantly against the nation's fourth-ranked team, Texas A&M-Commerce, but the Lions eked out the victory in the fourth quarter to claim an 89-86 win over the Rambelles to start their final week of the regular season.

The Lions were carried offensively by Laila Lawrence's 24 points and nine rebounds, as well as DesiRay Kernal's 17 points and 17 rebounds.

The Rambelles jumped out an early, seven-point lead, the biggest of the contest for either team in the first quarter; in a game with nine lead changes and 12 times the score was tied, the Rambelles did not trail until the 6:12 mark of the second quarter.

The Rambelles could not miss in the first quarter, shooting an obscene 64.7 percent from the field; they would follow it up with a 61.1 percent mark in the third quarter. For the game, they shot 53.5 percent from the field, their second-best mark in a game this season.

The difference proved to be the glass, with the Lions out-rebounding the Rambelles 41-21; the Lions turned their 14 offensive rebounds into 20 second-chance points.

In a valiant, 40-minute effort on the court, the Rambelles' Sawyer Lloyd turned in a career-high 27 points, shooting an efficient 11-of-14 from the field, also going 2-of-3 from three-point range.

The Wall native assisted a game-high seven times and grabbed four steals, forcing the Lions into 15 turnovers while the Rambelles only turned the ball over a season-best four times.

Payton Brown, like Lloyd, played all 40 minutes for the Rambelles, scoring 17 points and assisting six times.

The Rambelles had assists on 26 of their made field goals, the second-most in a conference game this season, only behind their 28-assist effort against Midwestern State back on January 13^th.

Samantha Rocha shot 6-of-9 from the floor for 12 points in 20 minutes off the bench while Tayjanna McGhee-Pleasant scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds.

Blakely Gerber battled foul trouble all night, only seeing 14 minutes of action, scoring eight points; Madeline Stephens added in six points, five rebounds and five assists while Ashlynn Sharp added in a pair of threes as well as seven assists in 22 minutes off the bench.

The Rambelles are now 14-12 on the season and 11-4 in conference play. They sit in fifth place in the LSC standings with one game remaining against UT Tyler on Saturday. The Rambelles need a win in order to clinch a first-round bye for next week's LSC Conference Tournament.