Runnin' Rangers bow out in conference semifinals

THORNTON The basketball season for the Kilgore College Runnin' Rangers ended with a bang Sunday evening in Floyd Wagstaff Gymnasium, on the campus of Tyler Junior College.

The Rangers lost to Angelina College, 94-87, in overtime in the Region

XIV Conference tournament's semifinals. With the win, Angelina moved on to the tournament's title game, losing to San Jacinto, 92-89. San Jac will represent the conference in the NJCAA National Tournament in Hutchinson, Kan., March 21.

The season was one

of big highs one game, lows the next, and back again. KC finished with a 19

13 record, and that semifinal loss ended a four-game winning streak.

In that semifinal game, KC couldn't really find an answer for Chip Cartwright, who went nuts, scoring 33 points. But none were bigger than his last shot, a three-point shot with 32 seconds

left that put Angelina up by five points, 89-84. It was also Cartwright that beat KC, 68-67, with a buzzer-beating three-pointer in Lufkin in February.

KC was down in the second half by 17 at one point, and fought back to close the game within three. But the Rangers began losing player after player, until four starters - Ron Larris, Marcus Hubbard, James Causey and Casey Forge - had fouled out. The Roadrunners (26-7) lost no one, though, to fouls and managed to shoot 12 free throws in the overtime period.

LEOPAUL The Rangers were led by talented freshman Marcus Thornton, who had 35 points.

Hubbard scored 10, and Jonathan Leopaul and Forge each scored eight. Larris, the team's point guard, helped out with eight assists.

To get to the semifinals, KC had been faced with a big challenge on the tournament's opening day - Lon Morris. LM had defeated KC 76-49 in November, and KC had returned the favor by beating LM here at Masters Gymnasium.

KC rose to the occasion in the tournament, beating thirdseeded Lon Morris in a bit of an upset, 79-71, Saturday afternoon.

Among those in the audience was Texas Tech University basketball coach Bobby Knight.

The Rangers were on fire, never trailing in the contest and hitting 54 percent of their shots. The closest LM could get was a four-point deficit with about one minute left in the game, but Larris took care of that, getting to the free throw line three times and hitting five of the six charity shots he took. Hubbard scored 19 to lead the Rangers and also had seven boards.

Leopaul finished with 18 points, and Larris had 15 to go with his nine assists. Thornton scored 11 and didn't miss a free throw (he hit all nine). Antonio Odom scored seven.

Many Rangers played their last game for KC. Sophomores this season included a talented group - Larris, Forge, Hubbard, Causey, Leopaul, Odom, Dwight Coleman, and Michael Harmon. Some of them will move on to four-year universities, like many who have played for coach Scott Schumacher.

Thornton leads the group that will return for their sophomore season, including Brandon Wash, Landrell Brewer, Justin Olubuyi and Julian Ancerwski.

Schumacher will have his hands full in a different way, really immediately. Schumacher is the president of the NJCAA Men's Basketball Coaches Association, and the inaugural NJCAA Basketball Coaches AllStar Classic, which will bring the very best junior college basketball players from across the country right here to Masters Gymnasium for an all-star weekend of sorts on April 2122.

Those players will be selected by executive officers of the coaches association, in conjunction with junior college talent personnel and sports writers.

According to the NJCAA web site, players from NJCAA Division I schools will be matched against the best players in the Region XIV Conference (or Texas Eastern Athletic Conference) in the feature game, and players from Division II and III will be featured in another game, although they will not be matched against each other.

Each team will have 10-player rosters. Coaches will come from the championship team in DI and a Region XIV school (for the DI game), and from the championship teams in DII and DIII (for the DII-DIII game).

Also, there will be a banquet on Saturday, April 22, and the guest list includes ESPN basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla.

The Kilgore News Herald plans a special section to both commemorate and to preview the weekend.

Also this week, the conference named its All-Region team.

Kilgore College's Hubbard was named as part of the firstteam; Leopaul was part of the second-team; and Thornton was an honorable mention. Lee College's Mike White and Lon Morris' Hernol Hall were named co-Most Valuable Players, and Angelina coach Guy Davis was named coach of the year.