KC loses to Panola; out of RXIV tourney
JUNIOR COLLEGE BASKETBALL
By MITCH LUCAS sports@kilgorenewsherald.com

The Region XIV Conference - men's or women's play - stacks up annually as one of the nation's toughest junior college basketball conferences, and this year, both Kilgore College teams were playing from behind early-on.

The attempt by both KC teams to get into the conference's tournaments, which KC will host March 7-10, was put to rest Wednesday night at Panola College in Carthage. Both the Runnin' Rangers and the Lady Rangers needed to win last night (in fact, both teams needed to win their remaining regular-season games) and have a little help to get into the tournaments. But that won't happen, because both Panola squads beat KC to end the chase.

The Panola College Ponies beat KC, 85-78, and just before that, the Fillies beat the Lady Rangers, 74-57.

The Runnin' Rangers are now 14-14 overall, 6-14 in conference play, with two games left: at Navarro on Saturday, a 4 p.m. start, and at home against Lon Morris on Tuesday, the second half of a doubleheader following the women's game.

Coach Roy Thomas' Lady Rangers have just one game left: that Tuesday night game against LMC here at Masters Gym (Navarro doesn't have a ladies basketball program).

• Panola 85, KC 78 (men): A 17-point first-half deficit transformed into just a three-point lead for Panola with just over a minute left. But Panola went 9-for-10 at the free-throw line the rest of the way, and held off KC.

Maurice Foster led Kilgore College with 24 points. Ridge McKeither had 16, and also grabbed 16 rebounds. Omar Thomas had 14 for the Rangers.

Christopher Jones led Panola with 22 points.

• Panola 74, Kilgore 57 (ladies): This was a playin game for Panola, as far as the ladies' tournament was concerned, and a stay-alive-for-a-tournament berth game for the Lady Rangers.

Panola's will won out, hitting four three-point shots to open the second half, and blowing the game open.

Denetra Kellum led the Lady Rangers (10-15 overall, 4-15 in conference play) with 19 points. Nakazi Glover scored 13.

Jasmine Brown scored 23 for Panola, which led all scorers. Kim Edmonson had 21.

• RXIV tournaments: As far as the conference tournaments go, there won't be a KC team in it, but there should be some good basketball. The women's games will begin Friday night, while the men own the Saturday schedule.

Men and women will both play semifinal games on Sunday, with championship games on Monday - the women's title game will be at 5:30 p.m. Monday, the men to follow.

Single-game tickets aren't available - tickets are sold by sessions. For instance, Friday night's two games are one session; Saturday early-afternoon games are a session and Saturday late-afternoon games are another.

Single-session tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for kids 12 and under, or you can by a tournament pass that will get you into every game for $30.