Needing just a few more seconds – or a few more fouls – the Angelina College Lady Roadrunners just missed out on an upset bid against the No. 2 Trinity Valley Lady Cardinals, with AC falling 64-62 Saturday at Shands Gymnasium in Lufkin.
Trailing by two points with four seconds to play, the Lady Roadrunners gained the final possession with Briana Caro’s rebound.

However, the Lady Cardinals still had three fouls to give before the bonus, and they used two of those on two straight Lady ‘Runner inbounds passes, leaving just 1.4 seconds for AC to get off a potential game-tying or game-winning shot. That wasn’t quite enough time, as Caro’s desperation heave missed the mark.
Those final dramatic moments came after the Lady Roadrunners clawed their way back from eight points down with a little
more than four minutes to play. Caro’s three pointer with 52 seconds remaining cut the Trinity Valley lead to 62-60, and after the Lady Cards’ Alisha Washington sank a pair of free throws, AC’s Malachi McQueen scored on a feed from Caitlyn Lambert to keep the margin at two points. Caro then forced a TVCC turnover, but in the end there wasn’t enough time for the Lady ‘Runners to pull off their second straight home win over the nationally ranked Lady Cardinals.
“The girls played hard, but we just couldn’t get the breaks we needed down the stretch,” head coach Byron Coleman said. “But this is the kind of loss we can turn into a positive. We saw how good we can be against good teams, and that could help us out quite a bit over the rest of the season.”
Ariel Taylor led AC in scoring with 13 points, with 10 of those coming in the first quarter. Caro, Lambert and LaNeique Nealey added 12 points each, and McQueen finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Christalah Lyons scored 21 points to lead Trinity Valley (10-1, 4-0). Troi Swain finished with 11.
The Lady Roadrunners (8-6, 2-4) won’t be back in action again until a road trip to Waco for the SAWBC Tournament beginning on January 2 and 3.
The e-mail address for AC’s Sports Information Director is gstallard@angelina.edu.