By MITCH LUCAS
The Rangers did suffer a loss to Lee College, 88-72, on Friday night at UT-Tyler Patriot Center, allowing Lee to move on to the finals of the Region IV tourney. The winner, of course, moves on to the NJCAA Men’s Tournament that begins March 18 in Hutchinson, Kan.
Brian Hoberecht
But KC (26-5 overall) had already won the conference’s regular-season championship, and this year with that came one of four automatic bid to the national tournament. Rangers head coach Brian Hoberecht had said earlier this week that his team’s immediate goal was to win the conference tournament title.
That goal wasn’t achieved, but the ultimate goal — a national championship — is still out there.
Still to be announced is which eight teams are seeded 1 through 8 and receive a first-round bye in the 24-team national tournament. The pairings will be announced late this weekend or early next week.
But Friday night’s semifinal game belonged to fifth-seeded Lee College, who led Kilgore 45-36 at halftime and hit 50 percent of its shots from the floor.Don Thomas hit for 22 points for Lee, and teammate De’Vante Wilson had 20. Lee went 21-of-27 from the free throw line.
The Rangers went 24-of-64 (37 percent) from the floor.
Kilgore got 17 points from Lonnie McClanahan, 15 from Quinton Upshur and 10 from Maurice Taylor. Nardi Bogues had eight, and Chinedu Amajoyi and Kalif Wright each had six. Erick Diouf had five, Matt Gamberoni, four, and Michael Eneh had two. Diouf had eight rebounds; McClanahan had four assists.
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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