By Cody Pastorella
The Lamar State College-Port Arthur Seahawks kicked the 2009 season off on a bright note by delivering a 101-79 whipping to the visiting Southern University Port City Jaguars.
LSC-PA took its first lead after point guard Von Jones nailed a 3-pointer to make the score 3-2. Kavon Rose, a TCU transfer, added a 3-pointer to take a 6-2 lead and then dropped a third trey. Before SU knew it, Port Arthur had an 18-7 lead.
Rose led the team in scoring with 23 points and hit four threes on the night.
While the Seahawks never lost control of the contest or lost their lead, they did not put the Jaguars completely away until Beaumont's Roman Vaughn came off the bench near the 10 minute mark in the second half.
LSC-PA had fizzled offensively, which allowed the Jags to trim a 19-point defecit to 10 over six minutes of action. That's when Port Arthur's first year coach Matt Cross turned to a three bench players, including Vaughn, who provided a tremendous and unexpected spark.
Moment's after the 6-4 winger entered the court, he scored a bucket, picked up a free throw and then added four more points to give the Seahawks a 71-55 advantage. Vaughn scored six straight points for Port Arthur and had 15 on the night. He also hauled in seven rebounds and had a pair of assists, all in nine minutes.
"He really came in and gave us a lift," Cross said of Vaughn. "He gave us some good minutes and really showed me something out there."
Cross explained that Vaughn was able to step into a bigger role once the team lost Dion Waiters for the remainder of the fall semester.
"That gave him a chance to get some minutes and now he has a chance to compete and prove himself. It gives me a chance to see what he can bring to the team," said Cross whose team moves to 1-0 on the season and will meet Lone-Star College in Kingwood today at 4 p.m.
Cross said he saw two negatives in Port Arthur's first win.
"We didn't hold our leads and we didn't rebound well enough to be a the kind of team we want to be," he said. "If we are going to become a regional powerhouse, we're going be more disciplined and improve our rebounding. We're a long away from where I want us to be. We've got a lot of work to do before we play Lon Morris (LSC-PA's first conference matchup).
"But this was a good start. We stretched our lead late and scored 100 points."
Leviante Davis, a 6-5 forward, led the team in rebounds with eight. He also matched Rose's 23 points.
Vaughn was the Seahawks third leading scorer. Jones followed with 10 points and Silbee's Nick Walters hit three 3-pointers to score nine points off the bench. He entered in the same rotation as Vaughn.
Jones also had a team-high eight assists.
The Seahawks will return home on a Friday to face Coastal Blend College at 7 p.m.
