BLINN WOMEN’S BASKETBALL DEFEATS KILGORE ON LECOMPTE’S LAST SECOND SHOT
Story by Joe Alberico, Blinn College Sports Information
Kamaria “Juice” Ford fell to the floor, corralled the loose basketball, and dished a quick pass to Cynthia LeCompte.
LeCompte then delivered a victory to the Blinn College women’s basketball team.
Ford’s tough assist and LeCompte’s 3-pointer with 3.6 seconds remaining sent the Buccaneers to a nail-biting 50-48 Region 14 victory over Kilgore College on Wednesday at the Kruse Center in Brenham, Texas.
“What a play from Cynthia,” Blinn head coach Jeff Jenkins said. “We played our hearts out the entire game, and our defensive intensity every possession kept us in the game. We needed one big shot at the end and Cynthia delivered.”
Before LeCompte’s heroics, the Bucs (16-10, 6-4 Region 14) managed just three points in the fourth period as the Rangers rallied out of a 44-38 deficit.
On its game-winning possession with 17 seconds remaining, Blinn inbounded the ball from its half of the court. A passed ball was deflected off a Ranger defender and into the hands of Ford, and as she dribbled near the free throw line, the ball was batted out of her hands as she fell to the hardwood. Ford grabbed the ball and, from her knees, dumped it off to LeCompte for the game-winner.
Following a timeout, Kilgore turned the ball over to the Bucs on an inbounds pass. Blinn was subsequently fouled and came up short on a pair of free throws, but the Rangers misfired a half-court shot at the buzzer.
Blinn led 13-11 after the first period and 31-22 at halftime.
Sophomore guard Mariah Houston and LeCompte led Blinn with 14 and 13 points, respectively. Sophomore guards Taylor Spencer and Jasey Campbell tacked on nine apiece.
Jenkins said he was happy to see his team pull out the victory, but is looking for improvement from the Bucs with four regular-season games remaining.
“Until we take care of the ball and hit shots, our defense has to be as close to perfect as it can be,” Jenkins explained. “I believe in the next two weeks, if we can limit our turnovers and hit open shots, we can be better offensively than what we have demonstrated.”
Blinn gets back to work when it visits region rival Tyler at 2 p.m. on Saturday in Tyler, Texas.