JUCO BASKETBALL: Seahawks advance in tournament
Published 12:10 am Wednesday, March 6, 2019
The NJCAA Region XIV men’s basketball tournament is so wide open, that only two teams in the event had losing records.
Neither one was Lamar State College Port Arthur or Bossier Parish Community College.
Lamar State avenged an early-season defeat on the hometown favorite Cavaliers with a 90-84 win in Tuesday’s first round at Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana. The Seahawks (20-11), seeded third in the South Zone, moved on to face Tyler Junior College (22-6) at 8 p.m. Thursday at Centenary. That game can be streamed live on coopersports.net.
Bossier Parish, which started the season 13-0, finished 19-12.
The Seahawks pulled away at the end after clinging to a 77-76 lead with 2:01 remaining. They made 24 of 36 free throws (66.7 percent), but shot 29 of 54 (53.7 percent) from the field, including 8 of 16 (50 percent) from three-point range.
Nathan Bailey led the Seahawks with 18 points, making 8 of 9 free throws. Devaughn Thomas had 13, Alex Williams scored 12, and Devin Ellis and Terrance Minor each had 11.
Jamyus Jones and Darion Chatman, both of Port Arthur, had eight and six points, respectively. Jones made a pair of three-point baskets.
Bossier Parish shot 26 of 50 (52 percent) from the field, including 11 of 26 (42.3 percent) from the arc, and sank 21 of 26 free throws. Eric Parrish, who signed with Nevada, led all scorers with 25 points and added seven assists, while Mikail Simmons scored 21 points and Jason Holliday netted 13.
Lamar State led 39-37 at halftime.