Rangers win fourth straight, at TJC tonight; ladies roll Elite

Mar. 31—The Kilgore College men's basketball Rangers beat the same opponent twice this weekend, home and away, and the Lady Rangers flexed some muscle — and took out some frustrations — on a non-conference opponent on Monday night.

Coach Brian Hoberecht's Rangers beat Bossier Parish, 94-76, on Sunday at BP, a day after beating the Cavaliers here at Masters Gymnasium, 89-67. The Rangers have won four straight games.

The games weren't originally scheduled to be played that way, of course: the Sunday game was a make-up game from a COVID-19 postponement earlier in the season.

The Lady Rangers hosted the 903 Elite, a club team, for the second time in a week, and beat them more handily this time around, 124-31.

Both KC teams are winding up the regular season. Hoberecht's Rangers (13-5 overall and in the Region XIV Conference) are tied with Navarro and Panola for third place behind conference leader Trinity Valley (18-1), although KC did lose twice to Navarro.

The Rangers play at rival Tyler Junior College tonight at Wagstaff Gymnasium, a 7 p.m. start, and then finish the regular season at Victoria College on Friday, that one starting at 4.

The Lady Rangers, coached by Addie Lees, are 9-12 overall, 6-9 in conference play and currently sit in sixth place. They're off the rest of this week, and then host Paris Junior College this Saturday at 2.

Of course, it's all about the conference tournaments, for both the men and the women, because the tournament champions advance to the NJCAA national tournaments.

The Region XIV Conference tournaments for both the men's and women's divisions are to be played at the John Alexander Gymnasium on the campus of Jacksonville College — the men's tournament begins next Tuesday, April 6, and the women's tournament begins the following day, Wednesday, April 7.

Twelve teams make the men's tournament and eight teams make the women's — the championship games are both set for next Saturday, April 10, with the women's title game tipping off at 4 p.m. that day, and the men to follow, around 7.

Tickets are already on sale. A general admission tournament pass is $25. General admission tickets for each individual game are $5 per person. To buy tickets online, go to https://www.jacksonville-college.edu/region-xiv-championship-tournament, and scroll down to the yellow "purchase tickets here" button near the bottom of the page.

KC 94, Bossier 76 (Sunday): KC's K.J. Jenkins hit eight three-point shots, going 8-of-12 from long range, and finished up with 26 points. Danwan Grimes added 20 for the Rangers, and Godwin Illumoka had 10.

Tutu Majok and Fahmmi Mamo each had 19 for Bossier.

KC 89, Bossier 67 (Saturday): KC had 50 points by halftime and coach Hoberecht's oldest son, Brendon Hoberecht, hit for 20. Hoberecht went 6-of-7 from three-point-land and also had four assists.

Da'Sean Nelson scored 16 for the Rangers, with five rebounds and three assists; Jenkins hit for 14 points; Grimes had 12, and four assists; and Tysen Banks had eight.

KC 125, 903 Elite 31 (Monday): Talk about blowing off some steam: the Lady Rangers led 37-4 at the end of the first quarter, and 68-13 at the half.

One would expect with that kind of a lopsided score, there were some players in twenty-something figures, and there were three for KC. Kerrighan Dunn scored 28 and had nine rebounds, five assists, a blocked shot and a steal; Vianey Galvan had 25 points, six rebounds, six assists and four steals; and Mckenze Brown had 20 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and a steal.

In addition, Jada Hood had 13 points; Rahmena Henderson had 12; and Maya Scheitel-Taylor had seven.