LADY RANGERS’ RUN ENDS | Trinity Valley escapes, 71-58; Rangers facing Lee in semis
By SHAWN CHRISTOPHER
TYLER – For the duration of the 2023-2024 season, four teams pretty much stood above the rest in the women’s division of the Region XIV Conference.
Those four teams – Angelina College, Trinity Valley, Kilgore College and Blinn – wound up seeded one through four, in that order, for this week’s conference tournament here at Floyd Wagstaff Gymnasium on the Tyler Junior College campus.
Now, it’s down to two, and unfortunately for KC’s Lady Rangers and their fans, it’s Trinity Valley moving on to the conference title game.
In a matchup of arguably the two programs in the conference with the richest winning tradition, TVCC pulled ahead of KC late in what had been a close game, getting a 71-58 win on Friday afternoon and advancing to Saturday’s conference title contest.
Blinn had upset top-seeded Angelina in overtime earlier in the day, so Trinity Valley and Blinn will meet Saturday at 4 p.m. back here at TJC in a rematch of last year’s title game – the winner will head to Wyoming for the NJCAA Women’s National Tournament.
The men’s championship participants have yet to be decided. Kilgore College is in the mix. The Rangers have the task of trying to upset the No. 1 seed, themselves – they face top seed Lee at 6 p.m., and that’ll be followed by Panola taking on Trinity Valley. The winners of the two games will meet in the men’s conference title game on Saturday night at 7.
Perina Lieme led KC with 16 points against Trinity Valley, and Nakiyah Allen had 14. Nyla Inmon had nine, Tylissa (Lucy) Henderson had seven, BryKayla Hampton had five, and off the bench, Jazmyn Sostand had six, and Jordan Wright, one. Sostand had 11 rebounds – KC outrebounded Trinity Valley, 41-33 – and Allen had nine, as well.
As a team, the Lady Rangers went 24-of-55 from the floor and 4-of-18 in three-point shooting, 6-of-12 from the free throw line.
April Edwards led TVCC and all scorers with 27 points, netting 15 in the first half, Lydie Mwamba added 17 points.
The Lady Cardinals went 6-of-20 from three point range, and hit 11-of-12 of their free throws.
Go here – TJCApacheAthletics – YouTube– to see KC face Lee in the men’s game right now, and we’ll be back to wrap that up following their contest.