Ralph Pokorny/Daily Mail-- Cottey freshman Jessica Roberts shoots for two of her 18 points during Saturday afternoon's game with the Meramec Magic.

The Cottey Comets lost to Region XVI opponent St. Louis Community College-Meramec Magic 67-75 in a game marked by four ties and three lead changes. The loss drops the Comets season record to 13-6 and 4-3 against Region XVI teams.

Comets head coach Dave Ketterman said that they missed a lot of shots at the rim, that just did not go in.

"In an eight point game, that's huge," he said.

Ketterman said that the Comets tried to establish an inside game, but they were not able to finish.

"We gave them the lead at the end of the first half," he said.

"There's no one big girl we can throw it in to for a score. Wagoner and Smith are trying, but they're outmatched," he said.

"Just a couple of shots going in would have made the difference," he said.

Ketterman said that Capri Savage and Jonica Booth had very good games for the Magic.

Savage, a 5' 8" freshman guard from Orofino, Idaho, led both teams in scoring with 33 points including six three-pointers and Jonica Booth, a 5' 4" sophomore guard from St. Louis, followed with 23 points including five treys.

He said that Cottey was overmatched by Meramec's guards and in physical ability.

The Comets take on North Central Mo. College in Trenton on Wednesday and host St. Louis Community College-Forest Park on Saturday for their final regular season home game.

The Comets put the first two points on the scoreboard, but Meramec matched them and added eight more to leave Cottey behind 2-10 six minutes into the game when a trey by Jessica Roberts and a bucket by Melissa Hedges narrowed Cottey's deficit to 7-10.

Although Cottey continued to add to their total, the Magic managed to keep their lead until a basket and a free throw by Liz Wagoner gave the Comets a 24-23 lead with about four minutes left in the first half.

The game was tied again at 26, 28 and 30 when two Cottey turn-overs gave the Magic a 34-30 lead at the half.

The Magic came out in the second half and with a five point run took a 39-30 lead one minute into the half and then extended that lead to 11 points four minutes into the half.

Roberts, Smith and Hedges picked up their scoring to bring Cottey back to a 56-68 deficit with nine minutes left in the game.

One of the five three-pointers that Meramec's Capri Savage scored in the second half gave the Magic a five-point lead. Two free throws by Smith got Cottey back to 58-61 and although Cottey was able to keep the game close, trailing 63-66 with about two minutes left, they were unable to keep the Magic from scoring and were unable to score consistently themselves.

Meramec outscored the Comets 9-2 in the last two minutes to win 75-67.

Jessica Roberts and Brittany Smith led the scoring for the Comets with 18 points each including two treys, and Smith going 6-8 free throws, closely followed by Melissa Hedges with 14 points, Liz Wagoner with 11 points, and Shanda Moore and Molly Frick with two points each.

Meramec's scoring was paced by Capri Savage with 33 points, including six treys and going 5-5 at the charity stripe, followed by Jonica Booth with 23 points and five treys, Michelle Senf with nine points, Cynthia Abernathy with eight points and Molly Zehner with two points.