MOVIN’ ON! | KC wins, faces Blinn, former coach on Thurs.; Lady Rangers play Wed. night
By SHAWN CHRISTOPHER
TYLER – Keeping up appearances might let you save a little face going into the offseason, but it won’t get you into the quarterfinals of the Region XIV Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Unless you buy a ticket or a tournament pass – those are pretty sweet, by the way.
The Kilgore College Rangers beat Bossier Parish, 78-65, on Tuesday as a part of the first round of the tournament here at Floyd Wagstaff Gymnasium on the Tyler Junior College campus, and that’s how the game will go in the books – but the Rangers definitely had control of the game without question, as the Cavaliers only had 18 first-half points.
Bossier took advantage of a little bit of sloppiness in the game’s final moments to make the final score closer, but KC advances to Thursday’s quarterfinals of the tournament, and Bossier’s season ends.
KC will take on fourth-seeded Blinn College, and thusly former longtime KC head coach Scott Schumacher, on Thursday at 4 p.m., right back here at TJC, where not only is the entire men’s tournament taking place, but so is the entire women’s tournament.
In fact, sadly for the home crowd, Tyler’s men were eliminated in the first round on Thursday in the very first game of the tournament. Eighth-seeded Paris knocked off ninth-seeded TJC, 55-53, in game one on Tuesday.
Two more men’s games were slated for Tuesday, at this writing (Navarro-Lamar State and Angelina-Coastal Bend), and then Wednesday belongs to the ladies, as their quarterfinals get under way.
You can see the entire schedule in a few places on ETBlitz.com, including the Energy Weldfab / ETBlitz.com spring break Scoreboard (Energy Weldfab / ETBLITZ.com Scoreboard | SPRING BREAK EDITION!!), but just to run down Wednesday’s ladies games, top seed Angelina meets No. 8 Coastal Bend at 1 p.m., fourth-seeded Blinn takes on No. 5 Tyler at 3 p.m., Trinity Valley takes on No. 7 Paris at 6 p.m., and No. 3 Kilgore College meets No. 6 Panola at 8 p.m.
For ticket pricing, go to the tournament website here ((NJCAA Region XIV Basketball Tournament 2024 – Region 14 Athletics), and to watch the event streaming online on the TJC YouTube channel, go here: TJCApacheAthletics – YouTube.
It was definitely a KC-owned game Tuesday afternoon at Wagstaff Gym, as Bossier just couldn’t get its engine running.
Kilgore College swept the regular season series, and then jumped out to a big lead in the first 4 ½ minutes: 15-2.
By midway through the half, a three-pointer by Peter Mckey had lifted the Rangers to a 23-7 advantage, and the Rangers blistered BP the rest of the way, taking a 25-point lead – 43-18 – into the half.
BP’s leading scorer had just six points at the break.
Willie Williams had 12 for the Rangers at halftime, and Mckey had three three-pointers for all nine of his points.
Defensively in the first half, KC forced Bossier into a ton of mistakes, scoring 14 of their 43 first-half points off of BP turnovers. They held BP to 0-of-7 in three-point shots, and on the other end, KC went 18-of-36 of their shots and 7-of-13 from three-point range. KC didn’t shoot a single free throw in the half.
Now, things didn’t stay that way, as the Rangers did cool off, particularly in the final four to five minutes of the game. But they were so far ahead that by that point, the Cavs couldn’t catch ‘em.
KC shot 29-of-61 overall, finished 9-of-23 from three-point-land, and 11-of-14 from the free throw line (all in the second half, as mentioned, on that one).
Jamil Muttilib led the way with 24 points. Williams was a point back (23) with 10 rebounds and three assists. Muttilib had three rebounds and an assist, and also had a steal.
No one else had double figures, as Mckey didn’t have any second-half points. Jamir Turner had seven, total. Cahmai Crosby finished with six, and had seven rebounds. Kaleb Pouncy scored just two points, but also had seven rebounds, and blocked two shots. James Mathews had four points, and KC Udolisa had three.
Braylan McNeal led Bossier with 21, and X’Zaevion Barnett had 18.