They say it's hard for a team to beat another team three times in a row.
The Seahawks of Lamar State College Port Arthur say they'll work real hard to keep that from happening when they take on Region 14 regular-season champ Trinity Valley Community College at 1 p.m. today (Thursday, April 8) in the quarterfinal round of the regional tournament going on this week in Jacksonville, Texas.
The Seahawks lost to Trinity Valley's Cardinals 94-86 on Feb. 24 and lost to them again, 87-68, just last Saturday, April 3.
In the first game, TVCC led by 25 points with less than six minutes to play before Kanntrell Burney (31 points) and Tydan Archibald (19 points) got hot to finish with 50 points between them.
Last week, the Seahawks rebounded from a 17-point deficit before halftime for a seven-minute, 21-4 run to tie the Cards 41-all. Then TVCC went on an 18-3 run of its own. Burney scored 22, Archibald 20.
Trinity Valley is 20-1, with all the wins in a row, and ranked No. 8 in the nation.
A year ago, the Seahawks upset TVCC in a first-round game at the regional tourney. Tuesday, they scored a 65-52 win over higher-seeded Tyler Junior College in an 8-9 game in this year's tourney opener.
Here's what some key Seahawks said about beating Tyler and facing the Cardinals today.
Coach Lance Madison:
"I thought our mental approach to the Tyler game was excellent. We had good leadership, beginning early in the morning at our 8:30 shootaround from Ty, Kanntrell and Kenyawn (Bowie, all sophomore starters). Those guys played in the tournament last year; they know what it's about. I knew we were focused.
"We were engaged before the game, during the game. I thought our defense was probably the best it's been all year. The guys did a good job of getting defensive stops. Execution-wise, I thought we had good movement, we took some good shots, we beat a good Tyler team. My hat's off to the players for a well-fought 40-minute game.
"My hat's off to Joe Lucien, for a freshman to come in here and pretty much dominate in the first half is something. He got rebounds, blocked some shots, scored down on the block and played a heck of a game for a freshman in a Region 14 tournament."
(Burney scored a team-high 14 points and Lucien had 13 points and eight rebounds. The Seahawks scored 10 in a row to take a 30-15 lead at halftime and led by more than those 15 points much of the second half, including a 20-point advantage with less than a minute remaining.)
"Trinity Valley is a good team. They're conference champs. They're ranked in the top 10 in the country.
"But I think we can match up with them. We just have to come with the mental approach and mental toughness we showed [Tuesday]."
Joe Lucien, a freshman forward out of Beaumont West Brook High:
"My teammates believe in me. They believe in me to box out, rebound. My coaches are always telling me that I'm strong, fast, that I can get easy buckets in the paint, so I tried to do that today. We wanted to come in strong, take Tyler out early.
"If we come out strong and play strong and physical like we did today, we can bring home a title for the Seahawks."
Kanntrell Burney, sophomore guard from Dallas Skyline and Seahawks leading scorer for the season:
]"We just told ourselves before the Tyler game, we're going to defend. That's our No. 1 goal, to play defense, and the outcome was good. It was our first playoff game, but we're trying to lock in, trying to make it far.
"We've got to come with the same intensity against Trinity Valley we came with against Tyler. We've got to follow it up."