JOURNAL SPORTS
ALEXANDRIA – The LSU Shreveport basketball teams ran away with the Red River Athletic Conference regular-season titles and were just as dominant capturing the RRAC Tournament titles over the weekend at the Rapides Parish Coliseum.
The Pilots await the NAIA Selection Shows Thursday to determine their draws in the NAIA Tournament beginning March 13. The men’s show is at 6 o’clock and the women’s follows at 7 on the NAIA’s YouTube channel.
The top two basketball teams met in both of the RRAC Tournament championship games Sunday and regular-season champions rode home winners.
In the men’s final, LSU Shreveport left no doubt with an 87-70 victory over LSU Alexandria as LSU system president Dr. Wade Rousse watched proudly.
The LSUS women topped Texas A&M-San Antonio 64-59 in a sloppy championship game earlier Sunday.
The LSUS men (26-2) swept all three meetings with the Generals (23-8) this season.
Emareyon McDonald, Khi Wallace, and James Johnson led the Pilots with 22 points each, and Hayden Brittingham added 10. Johnson grabbed 10 rebounds and McDonald snagged eight.
Brittingham was named the RRAC Tournament Most Valuable Player. McDonald and Wallace also earned spots on the RRAC All-Tournament Team.
The LSUS women outlasted Texas A&M-San Antonio to claim their title. The Pilots improved to 27-4, capturing both the RRAC regular season championship and the tournament crown for the third consecutive year.
The Jaguars came out firing in the opening quarter, building an 18-7 lead but LSUS recovered to take a 37-26 lead into halftime.
LSUS extended its advantage to as many as 13 points in the third quarter but had to hold off a last-minute charge.
Texas A&M-San Antonio cut the deficit to 60-59 with 1:38 remaining. The Pilots responded when Markisic made two free throws with 40 seconds left to extend the lead, and after a defensive stop, Amandine L’Etang sealed the victory with two free throws in the final 14 seconds.
Toni Coleman led LSUS with 18 points, nine rebounds, four assists, and four steals, while Markisic added 15 points and four steals.
LSUS shot 38.3 percent from the field and held the Jaguars to 29.2 percent shooting in a defensive battle that had 58 combined turnovers.
Markisic was named tournament MVP and was joined on the all-tourney team by Coleman and Paula Gonzales Herrero.
CENTENARY: The Gents (11-16) won their first-round Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference contest Friday in Conway, Ark., beating Colorado College 65-53 behind 24 points from senior Quentin Beverly, but were routed by nationally-ranked St. Thomas 64-34 Saturday in the semifinals. St. Thomas rolled to the SCAC tourney title.
BPCC: Tony Montgomery sank 12 of 19 shots and scored 29 points Saturday as Bossier Parish Community College almost pulled off a sweep of its last two home games, but couldn’t follow a win Wednesday with an upset of Blinn CC in a tight battle that went to the visitors 87-79 at Billy Montgomery Gym.
Drew Cooper scored 18 and Dustin Welch had 14 for the Cavs, who were tied with two minutes to play. BPCC followed a hot shooting night in Wednesday’s win over Lamar State-Port Arthur with another impressive outing, but first-year coach Jeff Moore said late turnovers gave Blinn the edge.
“Great effort from our team on Sophomore Night against a top team in our region. Offensively we played really well again, going 52 percent (31-60) from the field and 48 percent (13-27) on 3-pointers, but we just weren’t able to get to the line, attempting only six free throws in the game,” said Moore. “Blinn made the plays in the last two minutes of a tied game — capitalizing off our turnovers down the stretch.”
The Cavaliers finished their home schedule and have two regular-season road games left this week.