RANGERS TOP SOUTHERN-SHREVE | KC wins final game before Christmas break

By SHAWN CHRISTOPHER

Kilgore College’s men’s basketball team went into the holiday break with back-to-back wins, rallying from a tied halftime score at home on Saturday afternoon to beat Southern-Shreveport, 95-72.

Coach Robert Byrd’s Rangers are now 10-4 overall, but that was a non-conference win – their Region XIV Conference record still stands at 1-2 after that 76-68 road win at Coastal Bend, coach Byrd’s former team, on Wednesday (more below).

The Rangers are now off until Jan. 6, when they’ll jump right back into conference play with a home game against Victoria College.

See the entire home schedule for KC – actually for both the Rangers and the Lady Rangers – at Kilgore College (kcrangernation.com).

In Saturday’s win over Southern-Shreveport, KC hit 29-of-67 shots from the floor (just over 43 percent) and went 27-of-38 from the free throw line. Willie Williams, a sophomore from Houston, led KC with 23 points, and had 20 rebounds, the high for any Ranger on the boards this season. Williams also had nine assists and seven blocked shots, also the high for any KC player so far this season

Jamil Muttilib had 20 points, 11 rebounds, three steals, blocked three shots and had an assist. KC Udolisa had 16 points, 14 rebounds, three blocks and a steal – KC outrebounded Southern-Shreveport, 60-26, by the way.

Kilgore’s own Thomas Hattaway had 12 points, two rebounds, an assist, a block and went 4-of-7 from three-point range. Ikechukwu Nwaobi had seven points and three rebounds; Kaleb Pouncy had six points; Peter Mckey had five, to go with four rebounds, three assists and a block; Larry Lyons had two points and Cahmai Crosby had one point, and also had three rebounds and three assists.

Leon Smith Jr. led Southern with 24 points and had four rebounds; Latrell Holley had 21 points and three boards.

KC’s Lady Rangers had been scheduled to play a home game against Western Gulf on Saturday, but that was canceled some days ago. The Lady Rangers (4-5 overall) have yet to open conference play. They did win last Saturday, beating club-team 903 Elite, and have a couple of more games before the holiday break: they’ll play on the road at Midland College on Thursday, a 5 p.m. Central time start, then at Seward County (Kan.) for two games next Saturday, Dec. 16 and Sunday, Dec. 17 in the Christmas Classic.

Next Saturday, they’ll play at 2 p.m. against Otero College, then on Sunday, they’ll face home-team Seward at 4 p.m.

After that, the Lady Rangers, coached by Stephanie Willilams, will be off until their own mini-tournament here on Jan. 1, the Evelyn Blalock Classic. On New Year’s Day, they’ll host Arkansas-Cossatot at 5 p.m.