Trinity Valley ends Seahawks' best ever season

[LamarStatesports]

The Lamar State College-Port Arthur men’s basketball team played head-to-head with Trinity Valley Community College for 38 and a half minutes Saturday, but lost in the final minute and a half, 76-67, to end the Seahawks’ best-ever season with a record of 20-11 overall.

Saturday’s game saw 14 lead changes and the Seahawks clawing back from a nine-point second half deficit to lead by one point with 1:29 left in the game after Kavon Rose sank two pressure free throws.

The Cardinals replied with a field goal to go up by a point. Von Jones missed a jump shot, and Keenan Coleman snatched the rebound. But a turnover gave the ball to the Cardinals.

Jones fouled Trinity Valley’s leading scorer Chris Blake, who hit one of two free throws with the Cardinals getting another offensive rebound. Second leading scorer Isiah Rusher hit a lay-in, was fouled and made the free throw to up the score to 71-67 with 28 second left.

Dion Waiters missed a layup and was fouled, but missed both free throws. Keenan Coleman snatched another offensive rebound but missed a layup and Trinity Valley got that rebound.

A foul by Kavon Rose allowed the Cardinals to add two more free throw points to the final total.

Lamar State head coach Matt Cross said his team had two goals coming into the game – being able to rebound with Trinity Valley and handle their pressure defense.

“We weren’t able to accomplish those keys,” Cross said. “They are deeper and more experienced, and, in this setting, I think our freshmen came up a little tight. Some of them were tentative, and that hurt us.”

However, Cross believes this year’s experience will lead to a greatly improved team in the 2010-11 season.

“This is a team with a great nucleus of freshmen. We came a long way in the last few weeks when it came to handling adversity and displaying mental toughness,” Cross said.

Cross noted that his young team had a season of impressive accomplishments, including the best-ever overall record (20-11), best conference record (10-9), the first-ever berth in the Region XIV tournament and leading all Region XIV teams in total points, rebounds and steals.

The Seahawks also set 10 team records, eight individual season records and four individual single-game records.

The winner of Monday night’s championship game between No. 1 seed Paris Junior College and No. 2 see Navarro College will advance to the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division I Championship Tournament, March 16-20 in Hutchinson, KS.

Seahawk Notes

* Freshman forward Keenan Coleman led the Seahawks with 18 points, while freshman forward Dion Waiters had 16. Ahyaro Phillips and Gordon Ball each collected 7 rebounds.

* The tournament loss could be attributed to several factors including the Seahawks missing nine free throws and allowing Trinity Valley to score 23 second-chance points and 22 points off turnovers.