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September 2, 2008

PN-G, other schools reset for Saturday

By Cody Pastorella

Hurricane Gustav didn’t blow anything over in Southeast Texas, but it did manage to turn the Friday Night Lights into the Saturday Night Lights, with a couple of exceptions.

Still on for Friday night are Newton at East Chambers and Vidor at Houston St. Thomas. Two other games — Kirbyville at Jasper and Little Cypress-Mauriceville at West Orange-Stark — have been canceled.

The latter didn’t sit well with West Orange-Stark coach Dan Hooks, who is irate about losing a game off the schedule and the revenue it would have brought in. Hooks’ thoughts are documented elsewhere on this page.

The solution for most everybody else was just to back their games up one night. Unaffected were Nederland, which is off this week, and Port Arthur Memorial, which was already scheduled to play Ozen Saturday at 7 p.m. at Babe Zaharias Stadium in Beaumont.

Memorial is set to return to practice on Thursday, the same day school resumes. It will have one more day or preparation before heading to Beaumont on Saturday to square off with the Ozen. Both teams are 0-1, with the Titans having been edged by Central 10-7 and Ozen being blown out by West Brook, 50-7.

West Brook and Central, meanwhile, will meet Saturday at West Brook's Durley Stadium at 7 p.m. to conclude the Beaumont Bowl.

In other changes, Port Neches-Groves, which plans to practice today, will travel to Crosby on Saturday for a 7 p.m. game. The Indians are 1-0 after beating Barbers Hill 19-14 on Friday. Bridge City, which won for the first time under Cris Stump, will host Kountze at 6 p.m. on Saturday.

As for Nederland, which is licking its wounds from a 33-13 thumping at the hands of West Orange-Stark in its season opener, head coach Larry Neumann said the Bulldogs will return to the practice field Thursday afternoon.

The Port Arthur News Friday Night Experience telecast of the Nederland-West Orange-Stark game is still up in the air. It was originally scheduled to show Tuesday at 7 p.m., but has been moved back due to Gustav’s forced evacuation. It will be shown either Thursday or Friday at 7 p.m. on Cable 18.

Next action for Nederland is Sept. 12 at Waller.

In other area prep action, Kelly will travel to Hitchcock for a 6 p.m. matchup Saturday. The Bulldogs are 0-1 after an opening loss to Vidor.

Hamshire-Fannett, which meets Liberty this week, does not intend to cancel but nothing had been decided as of Tuesday afternoon. Head coach Walt Mangan did say it's likely the game will be moved to Saturday. He added the decisions should be made Wednesday morning.

Most schools, including Memorial and PN-G, have canceled the sub varsity contests for this week.

One other change because of Gustav is the I Beat Bob West Contest. It has been moved back to Thursday’s Port Arthur News for this week only.





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    Matt Cross wondered Wednesday whether Lamar Port Arthur’s basketball team had enough healthy players available to face Kilgore College.
    The Lamar State program literally was falling apart before head coach Cross’ eyes. The game clock didn’t work. The players were dropping like Lakeshore mosquitoes.
    Point guard Derrick Dawkins had crutches after sustaining a knee injury Saturday. Wing man Elton Roy missed last Saturday’s game with a knee sprain. Opposite wing Eldridge Moore was hobbled by an ankle sprain. Power man Jayon James was sick with bronchitis. Post man Elijah Pittman seemed out of sorts too.
    “I’m only about 75 percent,” said the Seahawks third-year coach after canceling a lunch appointment.
    It got worse at the start of this 75-50 victory in Carl Parker Center before life improved any on the good ship Seahawk.
    Playmaker deluxe Brandon Peters said he was “hit in the mouth” by a Kilgore player’s shoulder.
    “I’m going to have to go to the dentist tomorrow morning,” Peters said, shaking his head. “The guy knocked my teeth all the way back.”
    Battered and beaten to a pulp, the Seahawks (especially Peters) proved that basketball definitely is played above the shoulders, too.
    More than anything else, Lamar State simply relaxed and rebounded. And rebounded some more.
    The Seahawks crashed the boards in a way that they have not pounded them in a couple of weeks. They knocked home seven three-pointers and welcomed a special addition to their star of the game show. Lamar State College-Port Arthur, meet Lakeem Duncan.
    “We asked one person to step up in practice with Derrick going to the doctor tomorrow (Thursday) and Lakeem did,” his head coach Cross said.
    Duncan led the way with 16 points and backcourt buddy Shondel Stewart added 15. Peters changed jerseys (to 32 from his usual 23) after losing blood from being hit in the mouth. Peters had 11 points and 8 boards. Roy patiently treated his wounded knee all weekend with ice and also scored 11. Bum ankle or not, Moore managed 10 boards and 8 points.
    And a clean shaven head coach smiled afterwards after every one in Seahawk Nation told him that his team needed to rebound better. After Trinity Valley outrebounded Lamar State by seven on Saturday, the Seahawks returned to work and captured the backboard battle on this night, 33-22.
    “I thought we rebounded the ball well consistently,” Cross said. “We’re still No. 1 in our conference and if we can get everybody healthy, we can still have a very good chance to defend our championship.”
    Parker Center’s game clock has been malfunctioning for the past three home games and it had a way of really dictating a lot about this game. The game officials had to frequently counsel Kilgore head coach Brian Hoberecht about the clock and its unpredictable nature.
    A very good indicator of Seahawks prosperity arrived eight minutes into this one when Roy penetrated on a weave and dished out to Moore in the left corner. The 6-5 sophomore knocked home a three-pointer for a 15-8 Lamar State lead. Kilgore never got within five points the rest of the game.
    Another telltale moment developed right before the half when Roy missed a jumper, but followed his own shot on a layup to give the Seabirds a 36-19 cushion. Kilgore never got closer than 10 after that.
    Lamar State (18-5 and 10-2) will welcome all the support in Baytown that it can receive on Saturday night. The Seahawks visit Lee College that night at 7:30 p.m.

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