The Blinn men's basketball team closed out 2013 with a win and started 2014 on the same note.

The Buccaneers defeated Tyler Junior College 77-60 at the Blinn P.E. Building Saturday night in a Region XIV Conference contest.

"I thought our guys followed the game plan very well and did an excellent job of guarding Tyler," Blinn (11-3, 2-2) coach Scott Schumacher said. "Tyler plays a really fast-break system and we worked really hard the past two days to guard that. That was probably the most complete game we've played all year."

Blinn shot 22 of 24 from the free throw line, which helped keep the Apaches at bay for much of the game. Tyler was never able to pull the game closer than nine points after the Bucs jumped out to a nine-point lead in the opening minutes.

Macari Brooks led the Bucs' scoring with 23 points, freshman Lionheart Leslie scored 14 points, including an 8-for-8 performance from the free throw line, and sophomore Cornell Barnett scored 12 points.

Tyler had cut Blinn's lead to nine points with seven minutes to play, but Eddie Alcantara hit two 3-pointers in that time to extend Blinn's lead.

"I thought we were really focused mentally for the full 40 minutes," Schumacher said.