Lee rally falls short against Port Arthur

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Lee rally falls short against Port Arthur

By Dave Rogers

 

Published January 12, 2008 - Updated 57 minutes ago

By Dave Rogers

dave.rogers(at)baytownsun.com

The Port Arthur Memorial Titans left their best player at home — again — but they still had too much firepower for Lee’s boys’ basketball team Friday night.

University of Texas signee J’Covan Brown has been out since the District 21-5A opener Dec. 14, serving what his coach Terrul Henderson calls “an indefinite suspension.â€

But teammate Jacovin Buckner picked up enough of the slack Friday night, scoring 14 points to lead the Titans to a 53-43 win over the Ganders at Lee’s Gym.

The Ganders played without a pair of injured starters, Darius Cooper and Xavier Scott, who were out with ankle injuries.

“I had to play, basically, with seven guys tonight, and they (the Titans) just roll their players out there, one after another,†Lee coach Dote Williams said.

After trailing 20-5 after one quarter of play, Williams’ team battled back to get within four points, 39-35, going into the final eight-minute quarter.

Then the Ganders failed to score for more than four minutes at the outset of the period.

“I guess we’re late bloomers,†Williams said.

It wasn’t clear if he was talking about the first quarter or the last.

Buckner scored six of his eight fourth-quarter points during Lee’s quiet spell, building Memorial’s lead back to double digits.

Kevin Henry drove the lane for a pair of Gander buckets, but Buckner countered with a scoring swoop to the hoop of his own to staunch the mini-rally.

Memorial improved to 4-1 in 21-5A play, 15-8 overall, while Lee fell to 0-5, 2-20.

“It’s not very good to dig a hole and try to get out of it,†Williams said, this time talking about the bad first quarter.

“Especially a 12-foot hole when you’re 5 foot tall.â€

Buckner and Jacory Tyler each scored six points in the first quarter while Lee’s scoring in the first period consisted of a 3-pointer by Cornelius Laday and a field goal by Reggie Butler.

Laday led all scorers with 16 points, half of them coming in the third period when the Ganders outscored Port Arthur 16-9 to cut an 11-point halftime deficit to four.

Eugene Mayes added a pair of baskets and Butler and Hudson one each in the third period.

Hudson finished with eight points for the Ganders. Mayes and Butler added six each and Henry had five.

Lee travels to Humble to take on the league-leading Wildcats Tuesday night.