The Port Arthur News
— TYLER — Better rebounding and protection of the basketball paved the road for Trinity Valley College to eliminate Lamar State College-Port Arthur 73-67 in the Region XIV tournament quarterfinals.
The Seahawks' Cinderella story ended at 20-11 Saturday in Herrington Patriot Center when the Athens-based Cardinals scored the game's final seven points in the final minute and a half.
It completed the first winning season ever in six tries for Lamar-Port Arthur's basketball program yet it ended sadly for 26-year-old first-year head coach Matt Cross, who hoped to guide his LSC-PA squad to Sunday's semifinal round.
Instead the 24-8 fifth-seeded Redbirds of coach Pat Smith entered tonight's 6 o'clock semifinal against top-seeded Paris Junior College, a 70-52 quarterfinal winner over ninth-seeded Jacksonville on Saturday.
Rebounds and turnovers really gave Trinity Valley its winning edge in the Seahawks first-ever Region XIV tournament appearance. TVCC outrebounded the Seahawks, 44-36, and collected 18 points off turnovers to Lamar State's 8 points off turnovers. That's partially because the Seahawks committed 19 turnovers to Trinity Valley's 14.
Ironically, the Lamar State team had held the upper hand in rebounding and turnovers while winning five of their final six regular-season games.
"Coming into the game, our biggest keys were being able to rebound with Trinity Valley and to handle their pressure and we weren't able to accomplish those keys," Seahawks coach Cross said. "They're deeper and more experienced and, in this setting, I think our freshmen came up a little tight. Some of them were tentative and that hurt us.
"But this is a team with a great nucleus of freshmen. We came a long way in the last few weeks when it came to handling adversity and displaying mental toughness."
A second-half hero in Trinity Valley's opening-round win over Panola, Reggie Stallings scored six straight points while the Seahawks slumbered through a three-minute scoreless span early in the second half thanks to turnovers.
Lamar State trailed 49-41 with 12:20 to play. Trinity Valley stayed ahead 66-61 with three minutes to go before three consecutive takeaways enabled the Port Arthurans to tighten the game.
Kavon Rose made two foul shots giving the Seahawks their final lead, 67-66, with 1:29 to play. That advantage lasted less than 10 seconds.
KeAndre Derrick took a pass from Ernest Watson and made a layup to enable TVCC to regain a 68-67 edge with 1:20 to go. Lamar State's Von Jones missed at the other end with 45 seconds left. The game's leading scorer Chris Blake (24 points) replied by sinking the first of two foul shots with 28 seconds to play.
The 69-67 deficit remained within the Seahawks' reach but Blake missed the second free throw and 6-9 Houston freshman Isaiah Rusher grabbed Trinity Valley's offensive rebound. Rusher immediately made two free throws after drawing a foul from Keenan Coleman and the Cardinals owned a more comfortable 71-67 edge. The winners added two more foul shots from Ernest Watson in the final 10 seconds.
Region XIV's second-leading regular-season scorer -- Trinity Valley's Blake -- was the lone player to crack the 20-point plateau with 24. Keenan Coleman and Dion Waiters guided LSC-PA with 18 and 16 points, respectively.
Trinity Valley's two other double-figure scorers were Watson and Rusher with 14 and 10 points. respectively. Watson was the only double-digit rebounder with 11.
Trinity Valley led most of the first half and the Seahawks coach admitted his squad started the game much tighter than normal. The Cardinals opened up a 16-11 lead midway into the opening half, but Lamar Port Arthur owned a 30-27 halftime advantage. Waiters provided that lead by sinking a three-pointer with one second left in the half.
That turned out to be the largest lead which the Seahawks enjoyed all day.
