Seahawks open Region XIV tournament Thursday vs. Kilgore College

[LamarStatesports]

The Lamar State College-Port Arthur men’s basketball team, who finished the regular season Saturday at home with a school record 21st win, has several goals in mind as they take prepare to compete in the Region XIV Tournament for the second straight year.

First, they want to go much further than the first game, as five of the seven sophomores on this year’s team did in 2010, when the Seahawks won 20 games in the regular season to earn a first-round bye, then lost to Trinity Valley Community College, 73-67, in a quarterfinal game they had a chance to win in the final minutes.

Lamar State closed this season with a four-game winning streak, capped by Saturday’s 68-60 victory over Tyler Junior College, which gave the Seahawks the No. 7 tournament seed going into Thursday’s 6 p.m. tournament opener against No. 10 seed Kilgore College.

The Runnin’ Rangers (18-11, 9-10) ended their season with four straight defeats capped by a 51-47 loss Saturday at Paris Junior College. They defeated Lamar State, 72-61, on Feb. 2 in Kilgore.

Lamar State head coach Matt Cross said Kilgore presents a strong challenge for his team.

“We haven’t had any success with Kilgore in the two times we met since I became head coach, or the three previous games before I got here,” Cross said. “Coach (Brian) Hoberecht does a great job of managing the game. He wants to dictate the tempo. We can’t let that happen.”

Cross wants the Seahawks to control the pace of the game, as they did in their last four games.

“In the Jacksonville, Angelina and Blinn games, we got a lot of easy baskets in transition, which allowed us to break them open,” Cross said. “Against Tyler, we were able to win in more of a half-court slugfest. Teams that win in the postseason are the ones who execute their stuff the best in the half-court.”

The top 12 teams in the conference qualified for the tournament. The top four got a first-round bye.

South Zone champion San Jacinto College (27-3, 16-3), currently No. 4 in the nation, is the top seed. North Zone champion Trinity Valley Community College (25-5, 14-5), No. 9 in the nation, is the second seed.

The zone runners-up, Jacksonville College and Navarro College, also have byes.

Other first-round games match up Tyler against Blinn, Lon Morris against Panola, and Paris against Angelina.

If the Seahawks win Thursday, they have a chance to reach their second goal Saturday – to even the score with Trinity Valley and move on to Sunday’s semi-final round and, hopefully, Monday’s championship game.

“We we are peaking at the right time,” Cross said. “This team has overcome a great deal of adversity this season, and I really hope our momentum carries over. I believe we can have a very successful postseason.”

One-day tickets to the tournament are $6 for adults and $3 for students. Tournament passes are available for $25.

Directions and other information are posted on the tournament website: www.region14hoops.com.

The game will be broadcast live on the Lamar State’s new “Seahawks Athletics” website: athletics.lamarpa.edu.