RANGERS WIN IN ROUND ONE | Lady Rangers-Panola today at 3; men resume tourney Thursday
The Kilgore College Rangers, who have a history of going on runs in the Region XIV Conference Tournament, may be doing it again.
Coach Robert Byrd and the Rangers won their first game of the event, being played this year at Lee College in Baytown, on Tuesday – it was actually the very first game of the tournament, period – knocking out Paris Junior College, 73-72.
The game was just as close as the final score, which was completed by Joshua Olutayo: with the Rangers trailing by one, teammate Kaiden Myers missed a layup with less than 20 seconds left, but Olutayo grabbed the rebound and got the bucket to give KC a very-uneasy 73-72 lead with 14 seconds left in the game.
Paris’ Dragons would get one more shot, but Tyler Hankamer missed it. Olutayo, johnny-on-the-spot again, got the rebound and Paris was out of time – and out of the tournament.
The prize, of course, for KC’s win in that first-round game is to face the tournament’s No. 1 seed. That’d be Trinity Valley (28-2), who is on a seven-game winning streak and had a first-round bye. They’ve been waiting for an opponent.
Speaking of waiting, the KC-Trinity Valley game and the entire men’s bracket takes a rest on Wednesday, which belongs to the women’s conference tournament.
Coach Stephanie Williams’ Kilgore College Lady Rangers (20-9) play Panola College (19-10) today at 3 p.m.; that’s actually the second game of the day. The women’s teams don’t get a bye; only eight teams actually make the tournament, so it’s a smaller field, and everyone has to play a first-round game. The top seed plays the No. 8 seed, the No. 2 seed faces No. 7, No. 3 faces No. 6, and seeds four and five play each other.
Top seed Trinity Valley meets No. 8 Coastal Bend at 1 p.m., then the KC-Panola face-off follows at 3. Blinn meets Angelina College at 6 p.m., and it’s Tyler Junior College facing Paris in the nightcap at 8.
The men return on Thursday, and Byrd and the Rangers (15-16 on the season to date after that first-round win) take on Trinity Valley at 1 p.m.
All tournament games will be broadcast live on the Texas Sports Broadcasting Network. Here’s the link for the Kilgore College-Panola ladies game (Panola vs. Kilgore – TSBN Sports), and here’s the link for the KC-TVCC men’s game on Thursday (Kilgore vs. Trinity Valley – TSBN Sports).
Should the Lady Rangers beat Panola in the quarterfinals, they’ll advance to the semifinals that are played on Friday. That would mean facing either Trinity Valley or Blinn at 1 p.m.
The semifinals are all day on Friday: the two women’s games are at 1 p.m. and at 3; the men’s semifinal games are at 6 p.m. and at 8.
The championship games are both Saturday: the ladies title game will tip off at 4, and the men’s at 7.
For anyone planning to make the trip to Baytown for the remaining games:
- The address for Lee College is 200 Lee Drive, Baytown, TX 77520.
- Tickets are $12 each for adults, $8 each for students (with your student ID) and those are good for a session, not a game. Sessions are two games. For instance, the 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. games each day are one “session.” The second session of each day are the 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. games. So one ticket would admit someone for both a 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. game, or the 6/8 block.
- Also available for purchase is the tournament pass for $40, which admits someone for the entire tournament.
- Tickets are only available at the door, but cash and cards are both excepted. There are no passes for the event other than the tournament pass mentioned above.
- Parking for the tournament should in the Sports Arena & Wellness Center parking lot off South Whiting Street.
KC 73, Paris 72 (men): This game was tied at the half and gave the crowd its money’s worth, the best game of the day.
Tied at 40 at the half, the two teams with the exact same overall records and conference records gave the best show.
In the end, KC’s heroics allowed them to escape. Hankamer for the Dragons only played 28 minutes, but finished as their leading scorer with 21 points and three rebounds. Teammate Kondrick Turner had 17 points, five rebounds, four assists, a steal and a blocked shot.
Caleb Barrett had 11 points off the bench, with four rebounds, and Amari Brown had 10 points, six rebounds, two steals and an assist.
For KC, Myers’ 27 points on 9-of-16 shooting, and 6-of-10 from the three-point range, allowed him to be the game’s leading scorer. He also had two steals, a rebound and an assist.
Cahmai Crosby had 18 points and five assists for the Rangers. Bryson Holmes had a double-double: 11 points and 10 rebounds, and Olutayo finished with 10 points and three HUGE rebounds.
Also for the Rangers, Ty Hurndon had two points and four rebounds; Nekabari Mii had four points, two rebounds and two assists, and Savod Godwin had a point and a blocked shot.
KC and Paris had split the regular season series between the two, with each winning on their home court. The Rangers lost to Trinity Valley both times, though, this regular season: an 83-52 loss at Masters Gymnasium back on Dec. 4, and an 87-54 loss at Trinity Valley in Athens on Feb. 5.
That dramatic finish in Baytown between the Rangers and the Dragons was just the first of four games on Thursday.
The other first-round games saw No. 5 Lee College, the home team for the tournament, beat 12-seed Lamar State-Port Arthur, 78-64; No. 7 seed Tyler Junior College held off No. 10 seed, Bossier Parish, 76-57; and sixth-seeded Navarro topped No. 11 Coastal Bend, 74-66.
So all of the higher-seeded teams, including KC (seeded eighth to Paris’ ninth), won their first-round games.
That means on Thursday, when the men’s tournament resumes, KC will face Trinity Valley as mentioned in that 1 p.m. slot. Blinn will face Lee at 3 p.m. TJC faces Angelina at 6 p.m., and Panola will face Navarro at 8 p.m. TVCC, Angelina, Panola and Blinn were the top four seeds in the men’s tournament and all had first-round byes.
KC’s men’s roster:
| PLAYER | HT/CLASS/POSITION | HOMETOWN | HIGH SCHOOL |
| 1 Jonathan Byrd | 5-10 fresh. point guard | Lancaster, PA | J.P. McCaskey |
| 2 Cahmai Crosby | 6-3 soph. point guard | Kansas City, Kan. | Park Hill South |
| 4 Kaiden Myers | 6-3 fresh. point guard | Allen, TX | Allen High |
| 5 Bryson Holmes | 6-6 fresh. wing | Klein Oak | Klein Oak High |
| 10 Chidi Umeh | 6-8 RS sophomore guard | Dallas, TX | Lake Highlands |
| 21 Joshua Olatayo | 6-7 fresh. forward | Abuja, Nigeria | Good Vision Academy |
| 22 Nekabari Mii | 6-4 fresh. forward | Houston, TX | Travis High |
| 23 Ty Hurndon | 6-4 fresh. forward | Crandall, TX | Crandall High |
| 24 Savod Godwin | 6-5 fresh. forward | Newark, N.J. | Arts High |
As for today’s KC-Panola ladies game, this was in yesterday’s preview, but it bears repeating.
Williams’ Lady Rangers finished up the season with a 20-9 overall record, and 9-5 in conference play. They had won three straight games in the final couple of weeks of the regular season before a double-overtime loss at home to TJC, 82-77, back on March 5 ended that streak.
The Lady Rangers average 78 points, 37 rebounds and right at 16 assists per game, and are averaging 45.3 percent shooting, 65 percent from the free throw line in 29 games played this season.
Their first-round opponent on Wednesday, Panola, averages 70.1 points, 39 rebounds and 14 assists per game, and is 19-10 overall this year, 8-6 in conference play. Panola did win its last game before this tournament, a 71-60 win at Angelina College in Lufkin.
Panola and KC split the season series, with Panola winning on its home court in Carthage, 69-64, on Jan. 18, and the Lady Rangers winning the rematch, an 82-70 score at Masters Gym on Feb. 22.
This year’s Lady Rangers:
| PLAYER | HT/CLASS/POSITION | HOMETOWN | HIGH SCHOOL |
| 0 Deyna Topia | 5-7 fresh. guard | New Zealand | Takapuna High |
| 1 Madison Bob | 5-11 fresh. guard | Missouri City, TX | Hightower High |
| 3 Jarahle Daniels | 5-7 soph. shooting guard | Fairfield, TX | Fairfield High |
| 4 Rhyeli Hendrick | 5-7 fresh. guard | Houston | Westside High |
| 5 Rhianna Battles | 5-5 fresh. point guard | Alexandria, LA. | Northwood High |
| 10 Camryn Beck | 5-11 fresh. forward | Houston, TX | Klein Cain High |
| 12 Tylissa Henderson | 6-0 soph. forward | Bossier City, LA | Parkway High |
| 13 Brooklyn King | 5-7 fresh, guard | Wylie, TX | Wylie High |
| 15 Taylor Younger | 5-11 fresh. forward | Manvel, TX | Manvel High |
| 20 Anyla Herbert | 6-0 fresh. forward | Grand Prairie, TX | South Grand Prairie High |
| 21 Kamari Forrest | 5-10 soph. guard | Saginaw, Mich. | Saginaw High |
| 23 Nakiyah Allen | 5-10 soph. forward | Boyce, LA | Northwood High |
| 25 Ja’Sani Green | 6-1 fresh, forward | Omaha, Neb. | Benson High |