As Lamar State College Port Arthur sought an end to its recent dry spell on the basketball court, the Seahawks found themselves in a position to take a victory in their Region 14-opening game against Panola College on Wednesday night in Carthage.
Unfortunately, the Ponies just crashed the boards to outdo the Hawks down the stretch in a 97-87 decision that saw Panola out-rebound LSCPA 45-22.
With just over two minutes left in the game, the two teams had battled to an 85-85 tie and given the Seahawks' early-game ability to put together scoring runs there was no question Lamar State could still walk away with a conference win and an end to a three-game slump.
But Panola took advantage of second and third opportunities under its own basket to go on a scoring run of its own, outdoing the Hawks 12-2 down the stretch.
The Seahawks, now 6-4 for the season and 0-1 in NJCAA Region 14 play, travel to Tyler Junior College this Saturday for a 4 p.m. tipoff at Wagstaff Gymnasium. The game will be live streamed by Texas State Radio Network starting at 4. SEAHAWKS LIVESTREAM
After falling behind early, the Seahawks put together an 8-2 run to get ahead of the Ponies 13-5 then fashioned an 11-2 offensive push midway through the first half to lead by 11, 32-21. The Ponies, now 9-1 and 1-0, put together a 14-0 run to pull ahead 35-32. As the first half closed out, the Seahawks edged back out front 37-35.
Daniel Braster orchestrated much of the first-half offensive push, left open for 3-pointers several times as he peppered the bottom of the basket for 13 points, including three treys. He finished the game with 21 points and eight rebounds.
The Ponies opened the second half with an 11-3 scoring run, leading the Hawks 46-40 with less than four minutes gone off the clock. It took the Seahawks nearly 10 minutes of the second half to retake the lead, going ahead on Kanntrell Burney bucket to go back up 73-71 with 6:33 remaining. Burney, who scored eight points in the first half, exploded over the second 20-minute period, finishing with a game-high 23 points, hitting four 3-pointers along the way.
The two Region 14 powers battled back and forth over the next four minutes before Panola's deciding run over the final two minutes.
Evan Palmquist scored 14 points for the Seahawks, hitting three 3-pointers, while freshman Devon McCain scored 11 and Kharee McDaniel added nine points.