DRIVING RAPIDLY TO THE TOURNEY | Lady Rangers home tonight; Rangers finish regular season at Bossier
Rangers are home against Blinn. Both will tip-off at 5:30 p.m. The Region XIV Conference Tournaments, which will include
both KC teams in its men’s and women’s divisions, will both again be played on the campus of Tyler Junior College
next week, beginning Tuesday, March 12, with the men’s first round games. (Photo by ALEX NABOR – ETBLITZ.COM)
Basketball’s regular season is not only running out in the Region XIV Conference – if it were an hourglass, it’d be down to the final few grains of sand.
And when it’s done, both Kilgore College teams will be headed to the Region XIV Tournament at Tyler Junior College’s Floyd Wagstaff Gymnasium (more on that below).
KC’s teams have three games between them: the Rangers will finish their regular season on the road tonight at Bossier Parish, a 5:30 p.m. tip-off in Bossier City, Louisiana. And the Lady Rangers have two: they’ll host Blinn College at KC’s Masters Gymnasium tonight, starting at 5:30, and then they’ll pay a visit to rival Tyler Junior College on Saturday to close the season – fitting, huh? – this Saturday, March 9, tipping off at 2 p.m.
With just one game to play in the men’s division, the standings look like this: Panola College is 15-3 and sits atop the North. Trinity Valley is 14-4, and in second. As fate would have it – or happenstance, or coincidence, or whomever – Trinity Valley plays at Panola tonight at 7:30 p.m.
KC sits alone in third place, with a 21-8 overall record before the Rangers’ game at BP tonight. Now, here’s where it gets tricky. Tournament seeding could come into play. Navarro is right behind KC in fourth in the standings with a 10-8 record. Navarro finishes the season tonight on the road at Paris.
If – if – Navarro beats Paris and KC loses at Bossier, things could get interesting for conference tournament seeding. KC and Navarro split their regular season meetings, with the Rangers winning in Corsicana, 81-70, on Feb. 3, but Navarro returning the favor, beating KC, 67-65, in the rematch, Feb. 28 at Masters Gym.
How are the Rangers doing lately? Well, sort of surprisingly, not great. After winning seven straight games, including taking down the top-seeded Panola, they’ve dropped their last two (at Trinity Valley on Feb. 24, at home against Navarro as mentioned).
On the road this year, like where they’ll be tonight at BP, KC is 7-4.
So far this season, KC is fifth in the conference in field goals made per game, and field goal attempts per game. When it’s a three-point shot, their odds go way up: the Rangers are second in Region XIV in three-pointers made per game (just over eight of them) and they’re first in three-point percentage (37.8 percent).
Here’s the bad news: they’re ninth in free throws made per game, averaging just over 14, and they’re also ninth in free throw attempts per game (about 21 attempts). And they’re eighth in free throw percentage (69.4).
On the boards, on the offensive end, thumbs up: they’re fourth in offensive rebounds per game (12.5). But on the defensive end, a lot worse grade: 11th (25).
KC is led in scoring by Jamil Muttilib, a sophomore from Houston who’s hit for 567 points this season, an average of just over 19 ½ points per game (Muttilib has played in all of the Rangers’ games this season).
Peter Mckey, another sophomore, has played in three less games, but has averaged 14.2 points a game. Willie Williams, also a sophomore, has played in all the Rangers’ games but one, and has hit for 13.2 points a game. Williams also leads the team in rebounds, averaging just over 10 a game.
And Thomas Hattaway, the freshman from Kilgore High School and a three-point specialist, going 35-of-98 (35.7 percent) from three-point range, and has 116 points this season.
KC is coached by Robert Byrd, in his first year as head coach.
When the regular season is over, both the men’s and women’s tournaments will be played at Wagstaff Gymnasium from March 12-16 on the TJC campus and will be able to be viewed live on the TJC YouTube channel, and on the NJCAA Network channel.
The men’s first round games will be on Tuesday, March 12, all day, beginning at 1 p.m. and into the evening, and the women’s quarterfinals will begin Wednesday, March 13, same format. The men’s quarterfinals will be Thursday, and the semifinals for both men and women will be Friday, March 15. Championship Saturday begins at 4 p.m. with the women’s title game at 4 p.m.; the men’s championship follows at 7 p.m.
Tickets can be purchased here: Apache Ticketing – Tyler Junior College (apacheathletics.com). And tournament passes are available here: Apache Ticketing – Tyler Junior College (apacheathletics.com).
We’ll have that link again and run the tournament information several times between now and then in KC stories.
KC’s Lady Rangers, coached by Stephanie Williams, still have not one but two games remaining before the tourney, beginning with Blinn tonight at Masters.
KC comes off a five-point home loss to Trinity Valley, 67-62, on Saturday. All things considered, that’s not bad: Only three teams are in front of the Lady Rangers in the standings, and TVCC is one of them. It would have just been a chance for KC to gain some ground.
Angelina leads the conference with a 20-9 overall record, a 12-3 conference mark. TVCC is second (21-5, 11-3). Blinn, tonight’s opponent, naturally, is 20-8, and 10-4. KC is also at 10-4 in conference play, and is 17-11 overall. And wouldn’t you know it: TJC, who got off to a poor start this season, has worked its way into contention as the season progressed, and is in fifth place, right behind KC. TJC is 17-12 overall and 8-7 in conference play.
Williams’ Lady Rangers are 7-3 at home, and they did beat Blinn already this season, barely: a 75-74 win at Brenham back on Feb. 3.
The Lady Rangers can look down at some impressive numbers as their regular season draws to a close. They have scored 2,147 points this season – that’s second-best in Region XIV.
But how about this: they average 76.7 points per game. That’s best in the conference. They average 29.4 field goals made per game – that’s the best in the conference. They average 65 field goal attempts per game. Fourth-best in the conference. They hit 45 percent of them. Guess what? That’s BEST in the conference.
And they’re top-five in all of these categories: free throw attempts per game, offensive rebounds per game, defensive rebounds per game, total rebounds per game, and second in assists per game.
Not bad.
BryKayla Hampton is KC’s leading scorer, with 407 points scored. She averages 14 ½ points per game. Nakiyah Allen is second (12.8 points per game), and Nyla Inmon, third (11.1 per game). Inmon leads the Lady Rangers with 231 rebounds this season, an average of about 8 rebounds per game.