Loss to No. 10 Monroe College drops Lamar State to NJCAA consolation bracket

[LamarStatesports]

Lamar State College-Port Arthur dropped into the consolation bracket of the NJCAA Division I Tournament with a A Tuesday night 70-52 loss to No. 10 Monroe College.

Lamar State head coach Matt Cross said his team needed to play “perfect” basketball if they wanted to beat the Mustangs.

But the closest the Seahawks came to perfect was holding Monroe's two leading scorers, Jeff Early and Davon Marshall, to just six points.

Unfortunately, three other Mustangs made up the difference, scoring in double digits, while they smothered LSC-PA's leading scorers, Vonn Jones and Keenen Coleman.

Jones, who had 30 points against San Jacinto College in the Region XIV championship game, took just three shots from the field and scored seven points, while Coleman collected nine points on a 4-of-16 night, including one of six three-point attempts.

The unranked Seahawks came into the game with starting forward Roman Vaughn and reserve guard Ray Lewis recovering from the flu.

Lewis said he felt much better, but Vaughn wasn't his usual self, throwing up several air balls and scoring only two points before taking a seat on the bench midway through the second half.

Cross said, “Roman and Vonn have been the keys to our success much of the season, and they weren't able to do much tonight. Our team just didn't have the same energy and spark they had last week. We couldn't get our shots to fall, couldn't get rebounds, and our defense certainly was lacking.”

Turnovers played a factor in the game, although both teams committed 24. Monroe took advantage of their opportunities, hitting 20 points off turnovers and 12 second-chance points.

Lamar State never got their offense going in the first half, shooting only 26 percent from the field, while Monroe hit 46 percent and got 10 points off 13 Seahawk turnovers.

But the Seahawks didn't forget how to play defense, collecting nine steals and converting them to keep the game close, 27-23 at halftime.

The second half started the same, but Lamar State errors, coupled with fortunate bounces for the Mustangs, let Monroe pull ahead by 12 points with nine minutes remaining in the game.

The Seahawks cut the lead to 52-44 with five minutes left, but then the wheels came off and Monroe pulled away for the win.

Lamar State will play at noon Thursday against No. l Missouri State University-West Plains, which lost 77-65 to No. 6 Coffeyville (KS) Community College.