The Lions basketball team traveled to Katy, Texas on Wednesday, March 12 to compete against Nicholls State in the first round of the 2014 Southland Conference Tournament. The game took place in the Merrell Center. The Lions lost their position in the tournament with a final score of 64-71.
During the season and leading up to the tournament, the Lions always showcased strength, determination and dedication. Even when suffering a loss to Missouri during the opening of the season, the Lions ended with a win against Lamar to finalize their 2014 basketball schedule.
Head Coach Jim Yarbrough led his team with a strong mindset that they have what it takes to lead them to Katy. Although they suffered some obstacles, he gave overall insight for the 2013-2014 basketball season.
“When you don’t end up in the championship game it’s always a little disappointing. We had some good seniors who tried and battled their way to help us,” said Yarbrough. “We had some good memories on the court and we had a lot of close games that we certainly wish we could have back.”
While putting up an effort to lead the board during the first half, both teams were tied with 35 points at halftime. During the second half, both teams took small leads. With 14:43 left to play, both teams were tied up once again. Colonels took the lead with a score of 46-43. Deficit was cut to one by the Lions and a lay-up by senior forward Antonnio Benton, which brought the score to 52-51 with only 5:33 remaining. On an 8-0 run, due to turnovers and a technical foul Colonels lead with nine points. During the final minutes, the Lions could never close the score gap.
While the Lions did suffer a loss, Yarbrough found some strengths and weaknesses were shown on Wednesday night.
“Although we got down a couple times, we fought back and we had a good focus and energy,” said Yarbrough. “We missed on some easy shots and catastrophic turnovers which gave the guys on the other end some lay-ups, but we didn’t quite finish and execute like we needed and in the future for next season, we plan to do those things.”
Overall, Lions shot with a 39.6 (21-of-53) percentage from the floor, 30 (6-of-20) percentage from the three-point range and made 66.7 (16-of-24) percent of free throws. There were three seniors to lead with double-figure scorings. Guard Dre Evans led with 15 points, guard Jeffery Ricard with 11 points and Benton added 10 points.
The Lions ended the season with 12 wins and 18 losses. Evans finished the season off fourth-best, single-season three point shooting with a .443 percentage and Benton placed ninth in school’s history with 66 blocked shots, which put him in the school’s history.
Yarbrough believes his team will get off to a good start for the next season.
“We’re still getting use to each other, so hopefully we can learn a lot from the season, put four veterans back next season and make another good run at it.”