ROCK HILL, S.C. -- There have been multiple games this season where Miles fell into a sizable hole early in a game, or found themselves in trouble late in ball games, and somehow would end up on the winning side of the ledger.

Unfortunately, even as those scenarios came up on Friday in the SIAC Tournament semifinals against Tuskegee, the Lady Bears were unable to find a path to victory. Despite erasing a double-digit deficit and having the ball in the final seconds with a chance to send the game in overtime, Miles (20-8) saw its record-setting season come to an end in a 67-62 loss to the Golden Tigers (17-13) at the Rock Hill Sports and Events Center.

"Tuskegee played a good game today. But we didn't play well enough to win. We made mistakes that we normally don't make," said Lady Bears head coach Phillip Wallace, Jr. "We had a few things that didn't go our way, but all-in-all, we have to accept that we didn't win the game today."

The final three minutes of the game were as suspenseful as one might imagine between the two longtime rivals that split the regular season series. Katrice Jackson had just made two free throws to tie the game at 58 with 2:54 remaining. But as the Lady Bears went back on defense, forward Mya Millner inexplicably ran over Tuskegee's India Blakely at halfcourt. The foul sent Blakely to the free throw line and her two freebies gave the Golden Tigers the lead.

Tuskegee would lead 62-58 with less than a minute left and Miles got the ball in the hands of senior Sakina Wynn. She drove the basket into traffic and could barely get a shot up that ultimately went out of bounds. Frustrated with herself, Wynn (six points, seven rebounds) yelled a single expletive away from the action. The officials heard it and quickly assessed a technical foul. The two ensuing free throws put the Lady Bears in a six-point hole with 44 seconds left.

But the Lady Bears weren't finished. By fouling the Golden Tigers and sending them to the free throw line, Miles did everything it could to extend the game.

It worked.

Tuskegee proceeded to miss 7-of-8 free throws over the next 34 seconds while Miles made all four of theirs to cut the deficit to three points. The Lady Bears could have drawn to within a single point but a point-blank look on an offensive rebound by Jackson (six points, nine rebounds, four blocks) did not fall. Still, Miles had one final opportunity to tie the game.

With seven seconds left, Victoria Sutton took and inbounds pass and drove left. Wallace later said the play was intended for Sutton to take the final shot. But she saw Najla Shamsid-Deen open in the corner for her own open 3-ball. Unfortunately, the two seniors - who had been integral in winning 60 games during their four-year careers at Miles - barely missed the connection on the pass and the ball went out of bounds. Tuskegee would finally make two free throws to seal the win and advance to the SIAC title game against Benedict.

The real trouble may have come when Tuskegee reached 60 points. Miles, which leads the conference in scoring defense, went 2-7 this year when allowing 60 or more points and one of the wins came in overtime. The Golden Tigers shot 43 percent from the field on Friday, a departure from the 35.5 percent the Lady Bears allowed for the season.

"We focused so much on what they were going to do. We just overthought it," said Shamsid Deen, who had 11 points and two steals in her final act with the Lady Bears. "In the second half, we came out and actually played our game. We just came up short."

Tuskegee led the entire first half. When Morgan Kirk nailed a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left, Miles trailed 37-27. Shamsid-Deen would make two free throws to end the half to send the Lady Bears into the locker room trailing by eight points and started a stretch that would see the team make their final 17 shots from the charity stripe.

But Sutton said the deficit did not deter the Lady Bears, who were still confident that they could get back into the contest.

"There was no lead that was too much for us to come back from. We just had to come out strong in the second half," said Sutton, who led the team in points (16) and assists (7).

Sutton came out and backed up her words in the third. She knocked down two 3-pointers in the opening minutes of the period. Then, Kierra Patrick sank a baseline jumper to give Miles its first lead, 44-43, with 4:46 left in the quarter. A sweet reverse layup by Patrick and two Sutton free throws (she was 10-of-10 from the line) capped an 8-0 run and lifted the Lady Bears to their biggest lead at 48-43. But Miles would not score again and went into the fourth trailing 49-48.