BUC WOMEN WIN/MEN FALL IN HOOP ACTION
Buccaneers blow past Jacksonville in second half
After struggling to find any sort of rhythm in the first half, the Blinn women’s basketball team pieced it together and blew past Jacksonville 68-48 at the Blinn P.E. Building Wednesday.
The 14th-ranked Buccaneers led the entire first half, but were never able to pull away due to turnovers and struggles rebounding. The Bucs quickly righted their first-half struggles as they built a 10-point lead by the 15-minute mark of the second half, and the offense continued to attack the Lady Jaguars defense.
“I thought Shunta (Nevitt) and Brianna (Luton) did a great job shutting down their two leading scorers,” Blinn (22-5, 12-3) coach Jeff Jenkins said. “We played good defensively to hold them to 48 points.”
Nevitt and Luton held Jacksonville’s leading scorer Devanyar Workman to 14 points.
Sophomore post Fatima Adams led the Bucs with 22 points, while Katrina Hayden scored 16 and Tierra Tucker, an A&M Consolidated graduate, contributed 15.
Blinn remains in a tie for second place in the Region XIV Conference standings with three regular season games remaining. The Bucs have secured a berth to the Region XIV Tournament, held in Tyler, March 4-8.
For more information on Blinn women’s basketball, visit www.buccaneersports.com.
Lamar State upends Buccaneers
PORT ARTHUR, Texas – With the first seed out of the Region XIV South Zone up for grabs, Lamar State – Port Arthur refused to lose its chance at the top spot.
The Seahawks downed the Blinn men’s basketball team 88-70 here Wednesday night to keep their chances at claiming the South Zone’s top seed heading into the Region XIV Conference tournament.
For the Buccaneers, it was an even more difficult loss as they lost their leading scorer in sophomore Macari Brooks to an ankle injury.
“It was not one of our better performances tonight,” Blinn (16-12, 6-11) coach Scott Schumacher said. “You have to give it to Lamar State, they’re a great team with a lot of size.”
Brooks went down early in the second half and the Bucs struggled to comeback from a 45-31 halftime deficit.
Although the Seahawks pulled ahead early in the first half, Blinn made a run to cut the their lead to one with eight minutes to play in the half. Lamar State, though, responded with a run of its own before halftime to pull back ahead.
Without Brooks, Blinn turned to freshman point guard Lionheart Leslie, who scored a team-high 19 points. Sophomore Eddie Alcantara scored nine. Freshman Roderick Harris led Blinn with eight rebounds.
“Lamar State made it tough on us tonight,” Schumacher said. “We couldn’t get much going the whole game.”
For more information on Blinn men’s basketball, visit www.buccaneersports.com.
(Story & photos courtesy: Matt Keyser, Blinn Information)