ALLEN – The Angelo State Rams are headed to the Lone Star Conference Basketball Championships finals for the first time in 14 years after shutting down Cameron in the second half and earning a 76-53 semifinal win on Friday at the Allen Events Center.

The Rams (26-4) have not reached the finals of the tournament since 2001 and will now look to win their first tournament championship since the 1989 tournament. Chris Jones led the Rams with 22 points, five assists and seven rebounds in the win over the Aggies (13-15). Jones, who scored 21 points in the quarterfinal win on Thursday, had 14 of his 22 points against CU in the second half where the Rams outscored the Aggies by 23 points after the game was tied at 30 at halftime.

ASU will face Texas A&M-Commerce which earned a 53-51 win over top-seeded Tarleton State. The Rams and Lions will meet at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Allen Events Center with the winner earning an automatic bid to next week's NCAA Division II South Central Championships. The two teams split their regular-season series with the home team winning each game.

The Rams shot 17 of 22 (77.3 percent) from the field in the second half and finished the game shooting 31-for-50 (62.0 percent). It was the seventh time this season the Rams shot over 60 percent and is the fourth best shooting performance behind only high-percentage games against McMurry (66.1), York College (64.7) and Eastern New Mexico (63.9).

"The second half was one of the cleaner, better, second halves that we've played this season," ASU head coach Chris Beard said. "We were locked in defensively and I thought offensive that we did a good job sharing the ball and shot a good percentage. It was nice to see us play one of the better second halves of our season in what was the most important game of the year. One of the strengths of our team is that we have a lot of talent on the perimeter with multiple guys that can handle the ball. Whenever we get a steal or a quick rebound and outlet, we feel like we can push the ball. That's one of the things we like to do offensively and our transition game was very good to us today."

Demario Mayfield scored 11 second-half points and finished the game with 15 points, four steals and six assists, while Raijon Kelly had 10 points, two assists and a steal for the Rams who had a 26-5 points off turnovers advantage in the game. The Rams struggled on 3-pointers throughout the game, going 2-for-11 from beyond the arc with Mayfield and Marsell Holden each hitting one 3-pointer. Holden, who hit five 3-pointers on Thursday in the quarterfinals, now has 89 on the season. He was limited to seven points against the Aggies, but defense was the name of the game for the Rams who held CU to only 23 points in the second half.

"We had to get back to the defense that we were playing earlier in the year by sticking to the scouting report," Holden said. "We're a team that's never going to be out of a game because of our focus on defense. Once those shots starting falling we felt pretty good about what we were doing."

The Rams grabbed a 39-38 lead on a Bilal Richardson jumper with 16:58 to play and would not trail again the game. ASU went on an 8-0 run on a dunk by Mayfield and layups from Jones and DeQuavious Wagner to take a 45-38 lead with 12:49 remaining and were up by double-digits for the first time at 62-52 on Holden's 3-pointer with 6:20 on the clock. The lead expanded to 20 on free throws by Mayfield with a minute to play. ASU limited the Aggies to 34.8 percent shooting from the field and to 2 of 9 3-point shooting in the second half and forced 15 turnovers. Nine of those forced turnovers came in the second half.

"We knew their tendencies and stayed focused the entire game to get stops," Kelly added. "We came together and believed in each other and the system to get us to this point. Everybody has confidence in what the next man can do and that's why we are here."

Bilal Richardson added six points for the Rams after being held scoreless in the past two games and Brentine Taylor and Thomas Brandsma added four points each on inside shots. Richardson went 3-for-3 from the field, while Omari Gudul scored his only two points on a dunk off a missed 3-pointer. ASU's inside game was dominant with the Rams owning a 42-14 advantage in the paint over the Aggies who had beat the Rams two weeks ago in Lawton, Okla.

Jones and Kelly led the Rams with eight points each in the first half, while Brandsma and Mayfield had four points each. ASU finished the first half shooting 14 of 28 (50 percent) from the field, but struggled from beyond the arc by going 0-for-7 on 3-point attempts. ASU owned an 18-6 advantage in points in the paint and a 12-3 margin in points off turnovers. CU went 12 of 28 (42.9 percent) from the field and was 5-for-5 on 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes. Brantley led the Aggies with a halftime-high 11 points and Jackson and Ray each went 2-for-2 from beyond the arc.

"Nothing changed," Beard said. "That's just basketball where sometimes the shots go and sometimes they don't. One of the things I learned from coach Knight is that shooting does not dictate if you win or lose, but victory favors the team with the fewest mistakes. You can win a game without shooting great by playing great defense and sharing the ball and getting to the free-throw line. I was really proud of our guys tonight with our seniors in the huddle talking about not getting down just because our shots were not falling. Nothing really changed, we were just fortunate that the ball went down more in the second half."

Angelo State is now 7-6 all-time in LSC tournament semifinal appearances and will making its seventh finals appearance. The Rams have earned three LSC tournament championships coming in 1989, 1988 and 1984. ASU is now 2-1 all-time against CU in the conference tournament, including ending the Aggies' season the past two years.