BEAUMONT  — Remember Thursday night if the Lamar Cardinals miss the Southland Conference tournament next month.

Thursday night’s fourth quarter for the Cardinals was the definition of a disaster.

The Cardinals brought a 64-50 lead into the final frame, and the Stephen F. Austin Ladyjacks left the Montagne Center with a 79-77 victory.

“Obviously we played a great 30-minute game,” Lamar coach Robin Harmony said. “I think we were up 14 in the fourth quarter and we made probably five back-to-back mistakes on turning the ball over. We allowed them to hit two threes in our face and they ended up getting the momentum.”

SFA (14-10, 8-5) outscored Lamar 29-13 in the fourth, and a Danielle Rogers layup with 4:39 left gave the Ladyjacks their first lead of the game at 69-68 since the score was 2-0.

Taylor Ross pushed the lead up to 71-68 with a basket before Lamar’s Baileigh O’Dell drained a three-pointer to tie the game. SFA then went on a four-point run and later had a three-point spurt to put the game on ice.

Lamar is now 10-15 overall and more importantly 6-8 in SLC play. The Cardinals sit in eighth place in the conference standings with four games left to go. Lamar is a half-game ahead of Sam Houston State (5-8), whom the Cardinals finish the regular season against on March 2 in Huntsville.

“Whenever it is anyone playing us on our home court, we want to make sure we represent,” Harmony said. “We had this game and we let it go. You have to learn every possession is important. We took too many breaks, and every time we took a break they took advantage of us. It should have been our game but shoulda-coulda-woulda will not change the outcome.”

The loss spoiled a terrific night for Lamar’s only senior, Addesha Collins. She turned in a game-high 29 points, 20 coming in the third quarter. She was 9 of 20 shooting and 10 of 14 from the free throw line.

“This one hurts a lot,” Collins said. “Like coach said, we have to start playing all four quarters. The fourth quarter really hurt us. We had some bad turnovers, including mine. This was a bad one.”

Lamar seemed in full control of the game at the start of the contest.

The Cardinals opened the game on a 13-4 run. A 6-0 run to end the first and start the second gave Lamar a 19-9 advantage.

Collins hit a three-pointer with 9:06 left in the third to give Lamar a 37-29 lead. It started an 8-0 Cardinals run that put the home team up, 42-29.

Lamar’s biggest lead came with 1:22 left in the third after Laka Blache knocked down a free throw to put the cap on a 10-0 run. Collins had six points in the run alone on back-to-back three-point plays.

Harmony said her team showed its youth in the fourth period.

Freshman Kiara Desamours, who finished with 16 points, said there is no more time in the season for the Cardinals to make youthful mistakes.

“We are very young but at this point we have played a lot of minutes,” Desamours said. “With us tettering on the edge right now, we don’t have time for freshmen and sophomore mistakes. We have to play like juniors and seniors every time we step on the court.”

Brentney Branch scored 19 for SFA while teammates Taylor Schippers and Adrienne Lewis each put in 16.

Lamar freshman Chastadie Barrs collected seven steals Thursday, giving her 102 on the season. That is good for fourth-most in a single season for the Cardinals and one behind Lara Webb (1995-96) in third and six behind Jenna Plumley (2010-11) for second.