LC-M hanging on to slim shot at a postseason berth

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SOURCE:Beaumont Enterprise

LC-M hanging on to slim shot at a postseason berth

Do you believe in miracles? The Little Cypress-Mauriceville boys basketball team does.

LC-M sits two games behind Central for the third playoff spot in District 22-4A, but the Bears are not giving up hope for their second straight playoff appearance.

Ozen (20-5) holds sole possession of first place at 10-0, while Dayton (17-7) is in second place at 8-2. Central (14-12) is in third place at 7-3.

"As of right now we are two games back and out of a playoff spot," said LC-M coach Darin Harley, whose team is 15-13 overall and 5-5 in district play. "But as long as we keep winning we might get a shot at the end."

It's still a little premature, but it could happen.

Bottom line: it's do or die time for the Bears.

The Bears must win at least three of their last four games for any chance at the playoffs. LC-M is scheduled to play Lumberton, Vidor, Central and PN-G in the next two weeks.

"We are playing pretty good right now," Harley said. "I think we just have to take care of the games in front of us and see how it unfolds."

Lumberton travels to LC-M for a 7:30 p.m. game at the Bears' gym. Lumberton beat LC-M 66-44 in its first district meeting on Jan. 9.

"I have to give credit to Lumberton," Harley said. "They outplayed us and they deserved the win. We showed little effort in that game. Our goal this time around is to come out with maximum effort against them."

The reason for all the hoopla surrounding the Bears is the fact they have won three out of their last four games. The most notable victory was a 75-58 win over Dayton on Jan. 26. Ozen was the only team in the district to hand the Broncos a loss before the game.

The Bears also beat PN-G 56-54 and Nederland 46-36.

"I am very happy with the progress we have made," Harley said. "We are starting to execute at a level to be successful."

LC-M almost handed Ozen its first district loss of the season. The Bears missed the last shot of the game that allowed Ozen to hold onto a 51-48 victory on Jan. 23.

It was the second year in a row that LC-M missed the last shot against the Panthers. Ozen beat LC-M 77-76 in overtime last year.

"Ozen is well-coached and a very good team," said Harley, whose team suffered a 93-49 loss to Ozen in its first district game. "But I think in order to beat them you have to control the pace of the game. We were not able to do it at their place, but we handled the full court pressure at home. We just missed the last shot of the game. That was the second time that it has happened."

Even though the Bears returned only one letterman from last year's playoff team, Harley never underestimated what his squad could do.

"We lost eight seniors from last year's team," Harley said. "We are basically playing last year's JV team, so I knew it was going to take some time to get into a rhythm. We've played good at stretches and then bad other times, but we knew from the start that the only way to get experience is to play. The season has been a great building block for the next one."