(Pictured: Blinn College's Allana Thompson.)
Midway through the third quarter of Saturday's Region XIV Conference women's basketball game, 23rd-ranked Blinn College looked at the scoreboard, saw a double-digit deficit, and said, "No problem."
Undeterred by a 16-point gap, the Buccaneers staged an incredible rally to dismiss Kilgore College for a 70-61 victory at the Kruse Center in Brenham.
The Rangers led 47-31 in the third period before Blinn (22-3, 11-3 Region XIV) finished the ballgame with a 39-14 run.
"You just have to stay positive in those moments," Buccaneer sophomore forward Deja Adrian said. "What's the alternative – to keep being negative? That will just make the deficit grow. We just came together and said, 'Don't look at the score, don't worry about who's in the stands, don't worry about the negativity.' We just started lifting each other up and just focused on staying positive."
The power of positivity led to a third consecutive victory for Blinn, which also avenged a tough 69-65 road loss to Kilgore (17-9, 7-7) on Jan. 12, the Bucs' first setback of the season.
In the rematch, the Rangers led 35-27 at the half before opening the third quarter with a 12-4 burst.
"We weren't defending, we weren't closing out on shooters, we were turning it over every time we had the ball, which led to easy shots for Kilgore. It was the worst we've played all year," Blinn head coach Jeff Jenkins said of his team's play through two and a half quarters. "In the second half, I thought we played together. The girls were excited for one another, the bench was good, and down the stretch we took care of the ball. I thought we did really well defensively by making everything tough for Kilgore."
Blinn's comeback started with a three-point play from Adrian, who was fouled on a layup before knocking down the free throw. Adrian's bucket ignited an 11-0 Buccaneer run to pull the hosts within 47-42.
After a Kilgore bucket paused Blinn's rally, freshman forward Chynell Mitchell and freshman guard Jakoriah Long were fouled on back-to-back buckets and made their respective free throws to make it a one-score game. The Rangers responded with a layup and took a 51-48 edge into the fourth quarter.
After Kilgore opened the final period with a bucket, Adrian sank a layup and a free throw, freshman guard Tiffany Tullis drilled two free throws, freshman guard Skylar Barnes added a layup, and Adrian drew a foul on a successful turn-around jumper to return to the free-throw line. She made good on the free throw attempt to tie the game at 58-all, and Kilgore never led again.
The Bucs ripped off an 8-2 burst to take control, with Tullis turning a pair of assists from freshmen Allana Thompson and Makayla Patterson into open layups.
(Pictured: Blinn College's Tiffany Tullis.)
"We came into the second half having agreed to get out of our heads, and instead of getting mad at ourselves, get mad at the team we're going against," Tullis said. "We started settling down and looking for better scoring opportunities instead of forcing things, and that led to big plays for us."
Long and Thompson combined for four consecutive free throws in the final 27 seconds to put the game away.
"I was proud of how we responded after that first half," Jenkins added. "I've got really good players and they decided they wanted to defend and score the basketball. It always starts with your players, and I've got great players this year."
Tullis led Blinn with 18 points, long and Barnes had 14 apiece, Adrian chipped in nine, and Thompson tallied eight.
The Buccaneers resume region play with a game at Paris Junior College at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 16.
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 42 NJCAA national championships since 1987.
