Five Seahawks scored in double figures and three recorded double-doubles Saturday as Lamar State Port Arthur earned a tough win with its leading scorer sidelined by injury.
Ty Archibald scored 19 points and big men Kenyawn Bowie and Joe Lucien added 15 and 14 points, respectively, as the Seahawks held on for an 85-83 win over Jacksonville College at the Carl Parker Multipurpose Center in Port Arthur.
The 6-foot Archibald pulled down a team-leading 12 rebounds for his second double-double of the season. Ditto for Lucien, who snared 11 rebounds.
It was the first double-double for Johnson, a 5-9 sophomore point guard making his fifth start. He scored 10 points and added 10 assists.
Kanntrell Burney, the third-leading scorer in Division I junior college play, missed the game with a hamstring pull suffered at the end of Wednesday's game against Trinity Valley Community College.
In his stead, career highs were matched by Lucien and set by Bowie, Johnson and Desmond McQuain (13 points).
"What a great game for us," Coach Lance Madison said. "We came in here and didn't have our leading scorer. Some other guys had to step up and they did.
"We got some big buckets late and the guys hit some key free throws. Kenyawn Bowie played his best game in two years for us. Kobi Johnson made a great play late."
Bowie, a 6-foot-9 sophomore from Dallas Kimball, scored 8 of his points while playing the final 8:50 of the game with 4 fouls. He had never scored more than 8 points in a game for the Seahawks.
Johnson, who led his Thibodaux, Louisiana high school team to its first state title in 2019 and came off the bench for national NJCAA tourney qualifier Clarendon College as a freshman, had a hand in 6 of the final 8 LSCPA points.
He bounce passed inside to teammate Bowie, who scored the final go-ahead basket in a see-saw second half for a 79-78 lead with 1:22 remaining. Then Johnson dribbled down the 30-second shot clock and found Lucien who had gone backdoor on a drive-and-dish for Lucien's clock-beating shot with 40 ticks to go. Johnson's two free throws made it 83-78 with 24 seconds remaining.
Lucien and Archibald each hit 1 of 2 free throws in the final 12.4 seconds to leave plenty of margin to accommodate a half-court shot by Jacksonville's Telin Porter that banked through the hoop as the final buzzer sounded.
Archibald scored 13 of his points and both he and McQuain hit 3 3-point shots in the opening 20 minutes. LSCPA, 2-7 on the season, led the Jaguars, 2-8, by as many as 13 points three times in the first half.
The last such lead came at 45-32 with 3:15 left before intermission.
Jacksonville, led by Jerry Boston's 22 total points, rebounded to trail by a deuce, 48-46, at half. It was back and forth in the second half, as there were three ties and 10 lead changes.
Lucien led LSCPA with 9 points in the second half, with Johnson joining Bowie with a haul of 8 points.
The Seahawks travel to Bossier, Louisiana, to take on Bossier Parish Community College at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Their next home game is 4 p.m. Saturday, March 6, against Panola College.
