BRENHAM, Texas – Tony Lewis and Markques Houston tallied a team-high 12 points each, but the Blinn College men's basketball team fell to the Lamar State-Port Arthur Seahawks, 66-62, at the Kruse Center on Wednesday night.
"We played hard and guarded well, but Lamar State-Port Arthur is playing really well right now," said Scott Schumacher, Blinn head coach. "They did very good on the offensive glass, so we have to get better at getting those rebounds and get ready to play on Saturday."
Half of Houston's points came from downtown, while Lewis scored half of his points shooting from behind the free-throw line. Curtlon Wesley followed with 10 points, while Anthony Rice and Antione Lister each added six points to the board for Blinn.
The Buccaneers and Seahawks played a close game for the entire 40 minutes on the court. Blinn held the biggest lead of the game when Houston led the Buccaneers to a 9-0 advantage to open the game. The Seahawks scored their first basket of the game after the first five minutes, but made up for lost time with a 19-2 run to grab a 19-11 lead. Blinn scored the final three points in the half to trail Lamar State-Port Arthur 32-29 at the half.
The Buccaneers and Seahawks went back and forth in the second half as neither team extended more than a seven-point lead. At the two-minute mark the Seahawks grabbed a 62-55 lead following a 9-2 run that they hung onto for the victory. Blinn grabbed an early 38-37 lead in the second half after Lewis led Blinn with four points in the first four minutes. After Lamar State-Port Arthur pulled ahead, Lister came up with a slam-dunk to even the score 53-53. From there the Seahawks went on a 9-2 run. A layup by Wesley and two free throws by Lister cut Blinn's deficit to 62-59 with 50.8 seconds left. Blinn stayed close behind until the Seahawks pulled ahead 66-62 with the final free throw of the game with 2.5 seconds on the clock.
With the loss, Blinn's overall record drops to 17-10 and conference record drops to 7-9.
Blinn will be back in action on the road against Angelina College on Saturday, Feb. 24 at 4 p.m.
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 36 NJCAA national championships since 1987.
