After fighting back from an early 17-point deficit, the Seahawks from Lamar State College Port Arthur were swept under by the second wave of the nation's No. 8-ranked JUCO team Saturday night, falling 87-68 to Trinity Valley Community College in Athens, Texas.
Sophomores Kanntrell Burney and Tydan Archibald each hit on four 3-pointers and scored 22 and 20 points, respectively, for LSCPA as the Seahawks fell to 7-14 at the end of the regular season.
TVCC sophomore Trevon Fuller hit 6 3-pointers and led all scorers with 24 points.
It was the 20th straight win for the Cardinals, who fell 71-69 to Kilgore College in their Jan. 20 season opener and never lost again. The Redbirds topped the Seahawks 94-86 in Port Arthur on Feb. 24.
At 20-1, they won five more games than their closest pursuer in the Region 14 standings.
The Cards will be the top seed in the NJCAA Region 14 tournament this week in Jacksonville and, getting a first-round bye, will not begin play until Thursday, April 8.
The Seahawks will play as the eighth- or ninth-seeded entry in the opener of the 12-team tourney at 1 p.m. Tuesday, April 6. Tyler Junior College, which LSCPA rallied to beat 89-82 on March 27, should be the opponent, but tourney brackets had not been released at press time.
The winner of that Tuesday game will face TVCC at 1 p.m. Thursday.
After taking a 2-0 lead on a quick basket by Joe Lucien, the Seahawks didn't score again for four minutes and the Cards jumped to an 11-2 lead. TVCC achieved a double-digit lead at 27-16 with 7:22 left in the first half and stretched it to 17 points, 37-20, with 3:46 left before halftime.
Archibald, a transfer from TVCC playing in his old gym, finally got warmed up to join Burney and Lucien as a multi-basket scorer. Adrian Caldwell swished a 3-pointer as LSCPA fought back to trail by six points, 37-31, when the teams went to their locker rooms for intermission.
The upward trending Seahawks stock continued early in the second half. With Burney hitting back to back 3-balls, the game was tied 41-41 just over three minutes into the period.
But the Cards had that second kick. They outscored Lamar State 18-3 over the next five minutes for a 15-point, 59-44, margin with 12:08 remaining and never let the Seahawks get closer than a dozen points the rest of the way.
Lucien set an individual season high for the Seahawks with 13 rebounds but missed a double-double, scoring nine points. Archibald and Burney contributed seven and five rebounds, respectively.
Caldwell hit a pair of treys and finished with eight points and Kobi Johnson had five points and six assists for the Seahawks.