HUTCHINSON, Kan. – Region XIV tournament champion Lee College quickly lost a four-point halftime lead and trailed for most of the second half, finally falling 84-80 Tuesday night in a second-round game of the men’s NJCAA tournament.
With the win, Vincennes advances to a quarterfinal game at 2 p.m. Thursday against Howard College, which beat Hutchinson 92-69 earlier.
Vincennes scored the first 10 points of the second half and threatened to run away with the contest.
But Jamal Jones brought the Rebels back, and Lee reclaimed the lead with just over two minutes to play. Consecutive turnovers let Vincennes go back up 77-73, but Jones tied the game at 77-77 with a basket with 1:24 to play.
But Devin Foster’s 3-pointer with 1:05 to play put Vincennes back ahead to stay, and Foster’s fast-break basket after a turnover made it 82-77 with 52.6 seconds left.
Jones’ 3-pointer cut Vincennes’ lead to 82-80 with 41.7 seconds. Vincennes waited until only 1 second was left on the 35-second shot, missing with a 3-point attempt with six seconds to play.
Lee would have had a chance had it gotten the rebound, but Vincennes got the rebound and two points on a put-back, and that pretty much wrapped it up.
Jones led Lee College with 29 points on 6-of-10 field goals and 11-of-15 free throws. Trahson Burrell added 16 points and Don Thomas 13 points.
Darius Carter led Vincennes with 22 points, followed by 16 points by Foster.
Charles Richards Charles Richards moved to Paris in 2004 after retiring from a 40-year career in journalism – the last 26 years as a news writer and sports writer with The Associated Press in Dallas and Washington, D.C. In mid-2004, The Paris News coaxed him out of retirement, and he began covering the police, court and regional beat for The Paris News. Then in early 2005, he was switched to coverage of a sharply divided Paris City Council. He was appointed by the City Council in 2006 to the 12-member City Charter Review Commission, which extensively rewrote the outmoded document. His writing awards include two first-place awards in statewide competition for feature writing. The most recent was his 2005 story on a Paris doctor’s startling use of leeches in a successful attempt to re-attach a man’s severed ear. Over his career, Richards’ interview subjects include Alabama Gov. George Wallace, President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush, David Koresh, Arnold Palmer, Muhammad Ali and numerous other political and sports figures. He is an alumnus of Texas Tech, where he was editor of the school newspaper. He lives in Paris with his wife, Barbara, who is retired after 30 years as a teacher and high school counselor.
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