CORSICANA, Texas — The Blinn College men's basketball team (9-2, 1-1) outscored Navarro College in the second half, but couldn't recover from an early deficit as the Buccaneers fell to the Bulldogs, 74-67, on Wednesday night.

"We dug a hole early and got the score between eight and 12 points the whole second half, but couldn't get over the hump," said Scott Schumacher, Blinn head coach. "I credit Navarro for playing really well and unfortunately we didn't do what we needed to do to win the game."

On offense, Cardell McGee scored a team-high 19 points, Pedro Castro followed with 13, and Tristan Ikpe tallied 12.

Blinn had a slow start and fell behind Navarro 40-25 in the first half. Despite outscoring the Bulldogs 42-34 in the second half, the Buccaneers fell short of a rally. Blinn came out of the half on a 27-25 run to trail Navarro 65-52 with 6:20 remaining. With 1:18 remaining, Blinn pulled within eight points of the Bulldogs (71-63), but Navarro was able to take off and claim the 74-67 win.

Next, Blinn will return home to continue conference play against No. 13 Tyler Junior College on Saturday, December 7, at 4 p.m. in the Kruse Center. The Blinn women's basketball game will open the doubleheader when the Buccaneers take on Kilgore College at 2 p.m.

Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 41 NJCAA national championships since 1987.