Three games remain for the Lamar State College Port Arthur Seahawks to secure one of the Region XIV tournament byes.

They’ve already secured a spot in the region tournament and are just behind Blinn College in the rankings. With an 8-8 conference record, Blinn is the second place team in the South Zone Division of Region XIV. Lamar State and Jacksonville are 7-9 in conference.

“Not much has changed,” Seahawks head coach Lance Madison said. “Three weeks ago we were in sole possession of second place, and only two weeks left, we’re only half a game behind Blinn who’s in second.

“It’s a grind. It’s how competitive the conference is. It goes down to the last day for the final standings.”

The Seahawks had one regular season bye on Wednesday after back-to-back road game losses to Coastal Bend College and South Zone leader Angelina College.

Both games had costly official oversights. According to Madison, an inaccurate scoreboard ended the Coastal Bend game, 76-74, when the official score book showed the teams were tied and should have entered into overtime.

At Angelina College, officials awarded the Seahawks a one-and-one team foul in the second half when they should have received a two-shot foul. After the first one-and-one free throw was missed by the Seahawks, the Roadrunners responded with an 8-0 spree. By the time the mistakes were noticed it was too late to rectify them, Madison said.

“We’ve had some issues with the official table, the score and the officials the last two games, and hopefully it’ll get better,” he said. “It’s out of my hands. I turned it into the conference office.”

The Seahawks host Lee College at the Carl Parker Center on Saturday at 4 p.m. as one of three final conference games left in the regular season. At their last meeting on Jan. 29 the Seahawks came back home from Baytown with a 95-85 win. Madison is confident, as he and his team always are, but he knows the Lee squad has skill.

“Lee’s a good team, they’ve got a lot of talent, they probably have more talent than we have, they’re bigger and athletic,” Madison said. “Now they haven’t played to their potential night in and night out, but they’re a good team that could potentially beat any team in our league.”

Devaughn Thomas said that while Lee is competent, the Seahawks’ future is in their own hands, and all eyes are on the best tournament seed possible.

“We’ve been talking about finishing strong and finishing these last games so we can have the highest seeds as we can in the playoffs in the tournament,” Thomas said. “Hopefully we’ll get to second place and get the bye though. That’s what we’re shooting for.”

Thomas, who lead the Seahawks in scoring against Angelina with 17 points on Saturday, says he and the team know what they’re going to be facing. He believes if they play with the same energy they showed during the last game against Lee, they’ll do fine.

“We feel very prepared,” Thomas said. “We know what they do, their tendencies, everything they do already, we scouted them pretty well, so we should come out with the W this time most definitely.”