TVCC BARELY GETS BY RANGERS | KC plays No. 1 seed to double overtime before slipping; Lady Rangers in action Friday at 1 p.m. in semis
By SHAWN CHRISTOPHER
Special to ETBLITZ.COM
BAYTOWN – The gap between teams in Region XIV Conference basketball – men’s or women’s – is narrow in the regular season.
In tournament play, though, it turns out that its paper-thin.
No 8 seed Kilgore College, with nothing to lose, gave No. 1 seed Trinity Valley all it wanted for both halves of regulation Thursday in the quarterfinals of the tournament here at Lee College – the back-and-forth continued for two overtime periods, and the Rangers pushed the Cardinals to the very limit before finally falling, 72-69.
KC’s Cahmai Crosby was brilliant in the game: 28 points, seven rebounds, five steals, two assists and a blocked shot and played every minute of the game.
Here’s how it played out.
Trinity Valley’s Zati Loubaki was fouled with 4.43 seconds left, with the Cardinals up by just one, 70-69. Loubaki hit both free throws, giving the Cards a 72-69 lead.
KC’s Kaiden Myers inbounded the ball, and Cahmai Crosby, who had a phenomenal game for the Rangers, lofted a buzzer-beating three-point attempt that would’ve counted had it fell, but it was short, and time expired. The Rangers’ upset bid had fallen short.
KC finishes the season 15-17, but won its first game in the tournament, taking down Paris Junior College, and then shook the HECK out of top-seeded Trinity Valley (29-2).
The Rangers go home; TVCC advances to the conference semifinals Friday night at 6 p.m. against either home-team Lee College or Blinn.
The Lady Rangers are still in the women’s tournament. In fact, they also play Trinity Valley; that’ll be Friday at 1 p.m. in the women’s semifinals. The winner of the game moves on to the championship game. The women’s championship game is Saturday at 4 p.m., and the men’s on Saturday at 7.
The entire tournament is available on the Texas Sports Broadcasting Network; here’s the link to the KC-Trinity Valley women’s semifinal on Friday: Kilgore vs. Trinity Valley – TSBN Sports.
Back to the battle between TVCC and the Rangers.
KC led by as much as 14 in the first half, before the Cardinals chipped away at that lead in the final moments. Trinity Valley hit a basket right before the half expired to get within two, 31-29, at the break.
In the second half, it was the Cardinals that pulled away for a double-digit lead, as many as 12 points, and then coach Robert Byrd’s Rangers pulled the comeback.
KC’s Joshua Olutayo, from Abuja, Nigeria, the young man who had a pair of huge rebounds in the final seconds to help the Rangers beat Paris in the first round, was fouled with 14 seconds left in regulation against Trinity Valley.
Olutayo hit the free throws and tied the game.
The Cardinals came down and had a chance to win the game in regulation, but M.J. Wardlow missed a fall-away jumper as time expired and to overtime they went, tied at 59.
Neither team scored in the first minute and a half of the first extra session.
KC built a 63-59 lead.
Wardlow hit a bucket for the Cardinals with 2:14 left to get his team within two (63-61), and then a rebound and putback by Cameron Williams, his fourth such play of the game, tied things up with a minute left, at 63-all.
The Rangers were whistled for an offensive foul, turning the ball over with 52 seconds left.
KC’s Jonathan Byrd was called for his fifth foul of the game with 40 seconds left, fouling out. NO. 23, an 87-percent free throw shooter, didn’t disappoint the Cardinals, going to the line and hitting both – a 65-63 lead for TVCC with those 40 seconds remaining.
Trinity Valley’s Mouhamed Mbaye, though, was whistled for a defensive foul and sent Crosby, who was in the act of shooting a three-pointer, to the line – with just point-5 seconds left, less than a second on the clock. Crosby would get three free throws, an opportunity to not just tie the game but win it.
Crosby hit his first one, leaving TVCC up 65-64. But he missed his second, meaning the best he could do would be to tie the game and send it to overtime No. 2.
He did that, hitting his third free throw attempt and tying things again at 65. Overtime No. 2 coming up.
The Rangers missed on points on their first trip down the floor, and then Olutayo blocked a shot by TVCC to keep things tied.
Williams got in for a score for TVCC to give the Cardinals a 67-65 lead.
KC came back down and Crosby missed on a long three attempt. Olutayo grabbed the rebound, was fouled and hit both, tying it yet again, this time at 67, with 2:32 left.
Williams got the miss of a Myers shot, and Trinity Valley’s Garrett Nuckolls hit a three from the top of the arc to give his team a 70-67 lead with 1:28 left, Nickoles’ third three pointer of the game.
Crosby hit a two on the other end, and got KC within a point (70-69) to set up the game’s final sequence.
Crosby was the only Rangers player to hit double figures in scoring. Olutayo had nine points, 13 rebounds, an assist, a steal and a block, and Bryson Holmes also had nine points.
Myers finished with eight points, six rebounds, four assists and a steal; Nekabari Mii had seven points and four rebounds; Jonathan Byrd and Savod Godwin each had three points; and Ty Hurndon had two.
Byrd also had three rebounds and four assists.
Wardlow led Trinity Valley with 15 points and also had 11 rebounds. Williams finished with 12 points and eight rebounds. And Loubaki and Tyler Smith each had 10; Loubaki had five rebounds.