Tourney last chance for Hawk vets

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Tourney last chance for Hawk vets

By Dave Rogers

The Port Arthur News

Win or lose today, Kevin Charles and Jared Westbrooks hope a 4 p.m. meeting between Lamar State-Port Arthur and second-place Brookhaven in the opening game of the Metro Athletic Conference tournament isn’t their last game in organized basketball.

“Sure, I want to go somewhere else and play,†said Westbrooks, a 6-3 sophomore post out of Beaumont Central. “I’m just waiting on some coaches to call me. That’s why this is a real big trip for us.â€

Westbrooks and Charles, a 6-3 sophomore forward who graduated from Port Arthur Lincoln in 2002, are the top two players for the Seahawks in the scoring and rebounding categories.

Westbrooks was the No. 8 scorer in the MAC with 14.7 points per game, according to the NJCAA, and Charles was No. 10 at 13.7 points per game.

Charles, who set a school record with 28 points against Northwestern (La.) State’s JV on Nov. 29 and another single-game school mark with 17 rebounds against Angelina College Nov. 11, ranks No. 4 in MAC rebounding, with 9.3 caroms per game.

Guard Cedric Tyler and forward Marlon Hill, who played for Lamar State a season ago, left after one season with the Seahawks to play at four-year colleges — Tyler at East Texas Baptist and Hill at UT-Tyler.

But Westbrooks and Charles would be the first players for the Seahawks to put in two junior college seasons in the program before graduating to four-year programs.

“We hope these kids go on to the next level and play if that’s what they want to do,†Seahawk coach Don Bryson said. “It’s up to somebody else. The players can’t do anything but work.

“But they tell me there will be (four-year) coaches at the conference tournament and other coaches in the league have spoken highly for Kevin and Jared. Hopefully, we’ll get a few calls after the tournament.â€

The winner of this weekend’s tournament in the Dallas area advances to the March 15-17 Division III national tournament at Delhi, N.Y. The odds strongly favor league regular season champion North Lake winning it.

The Seahawks, the seventh-seed after a 5-22 season (3-9 conference) play No. 2 seed Brookhaven (17-11, 8-4) in the first of a tripleheader today at Brookhaven’s Farmers Branch campus. Game 2, at 6 p.m., matches No. 3 seed Richland (15-14, 7-5) against No. 6 Mountain View (11-15, 4-8). The Nos. 4 and 5 teams, Eastfield (16-13, 5-7) and Cedar Valley (12-15, 5-7) face off at 8 p.m.

Thursday’s semifinals take place at the Irving campus of North Lake.

The Blazers (18-11, 10-2) take on the winner of the Lamar State-Brookhaven game at 6 p.m. and the two other Wednesday winners meet at 8 p.m.

Thursday?s two winners meet at 7 p.m. Friday. Should anybody but North Lake survive Friday’s game, that school must beat North Lake on Saturday to earn the league trip.

Forcing others to beat the regular season champion two times to grab the national tourney bid is how the Metro Conference fathers decided to avoid devaluing their regular season championship since the league gets only one national bid.