Men’s basketball struggling for ASC playoff spot

The men’s Patriots basketball team defeated LeTourneau 89-73 Saturday to keep their playoff hopes alive despite losing to East Texas Baptist 72-67 in overtime on Thursday.

The Patriots held a 14-8 lead midway through the first half against ETBU. Turnovers plagued minutes eight through four, paving the way for the Tigers to take a 22-19 lead at half time.

The Patriots shot 22.2 percent in the half, making two field goals in the final nine minutes.
Hakeem Kareem and Travan Porchia hit back-to-back threes to tie the game at the 18:38 mark. Kareem’s layup on the next possession regained the lead for the Patriots.

Patriot Hakeem Kareem, right, attempts a shot past ETBU defender Josh Chambers durning Thursday night’s game. Photo by Richard Sarmiento.

The Tigers went on a 17-6 run from that point, taking a 42-33 lead. The Patriots responded, however, with a 21-10 run to regain the lead with 2:16 left in regulation. Kareem led the Patriots with nine points during the run.

A tip-in by Deba Egharevba with 1:24 remaining gave the Tigers a 55-54 lead. On the next possession, Michael Johnson’s three-point attempt rattled off the rim, but a foul sent Johnson to the free-throw line to shoot three shots.

Johnson made one of three to tie the game. ETBU called a timeout with 23 second left.

Officials called James Morman for traveling after receiving the inbound pass, which gave the Patriots the ball and 21 seconds to make a game winning shot.

Head coach Kenny Bizot gave Kareem the last shot, which rattled the goal and sent the game to overtime.

ETBU dominated overtime, shooting 5-7 from the floor and 7-8 from the free-throw line.

The Patriots shot 32 percent for the game to the Tigers 50 percent. Kareem led all players with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Josh Twine recorded 11 rebounds and 11 points for the Patriots.

Morman led the Tigers with 15 points and eight rebounds. Egharevba finished with 13 points and eight rebounds for ETBU.

We played hard and defended great, Bizot said. We kept them off the boards for the most part like we wanted too, but didn’t do it for all 40 mintues which is part of why the game went into overtime.

Kareem caught fire early against LeTourneau scoring 10 points in less than three minutes and 15 total in the first half.

The Patriots held a 49-42 lead at halftime, making four of six shots from behind the arc. Both teams shot over 50 percent from the field in the half.

Porchia extended the Patriots lead to 14 with 16:20 remaining on a fast break layup.

The Yellow Jackets, however, refused to back down and cut the Patriots lead to six with 11:32 left. JJ Rockmore led the Jackets run with nine points in four minutes.

Bizot called a timeout with 11 minutes left to calm his team down. Poor ball control led to turnovers and easy points for LeTourneau.

We had three or four turnovers in a row and you canít give a great team like LeTourneau more possesions, Bizot said. I thought we were shooting ourselves in the foot and I told our guys to just take better care of the basketball.

The Patriots did, starting a 9-3 run after the timeout and extending their lead to 12 with less than seven minutes left.

Kareem regained control in the final four minutes, scoring seven points and leading his team to victory.

He ended the game with a season high 24 points, while recording 12 rebounds. Porchia followed with 14 points.

The Patriots out-rebounded LeTourneau 48-31 and finished the game shooting 47.7 percent from the floor, improving to 11-8 overall and 7-7 in ASC play.

They will travel with the women’s team to Marshall on Thursday to face ETBU and to Longview on Saturday to play LeTourneau.