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Press Release

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LONGVIEW, TX — For the second straight season the LeTourneau University men’s basketball team knocked off visiting Mississippi College on a tip-in at the buzzer. Last year, it was JJ Rockmore and this year it was Marcel Louimeus putting back a missed free throw in overtime to give the YellowJackets a 73-71 overtime victory in Solheim Arena.
Louimeus, the team’s power forward, had been a forgotten man the last few weeks, but he made his presence felt on Saturday. He finished the game with 13 points and six boards, scoring 11 of his points in the second half or overtime. While Louimeus’ tip provided the deciding points in the ball game, it was just one of many big time plays made by both teams.
The game had 15 ties and eight lead changes in all. The Choctaws (13-5, 10-4) led for the majority of the first half, but never by more than five points. KiKi Christmas did most of the damage with 11 first half points en route to a game high 20.
In the second half, the Choctaws continued to maintain their slim lead and were up 55-51 with 7:35 to play. The YellowJackets (10-9, 7-7) exploded with an 8-0 run in the next 1:37 to take a 59-51 lead.
Now is the point where the big plays started to be made. MC’s leading scorer coming into the game, Prince Trotter, did not take a single shot in the first half. In the second half, he started to demand the ball. With 3:59 to play, he drained a top of the key three-pointer to tie the game at 60-60. The Jackets took back the lead and still led 64-62 with time winding down in regulation. The Choctaws missed a potential game-tying shot with 14 seconds left, but Trotter was there with the rebound and drew a foul. He calmly sank both free throws with 12.3 seconds left to tie the game. LETU’s Dewones Smith drove to the basket to try to win the game, but his shot was swatted out of bounds by Trotter and the game went to overtime.
In overtime, Trotter scored on an old-fashioned three-point play on the first Choctaw possession to give them a 67-64 lead. The Choctaws held the lead until a missed baseline dunk by Christmas turned into a transition opportunity for the Jackets. Zac Majors took a pass from Smith and drained the game-tying three-pointer with 3:06 to play.
Louimeus and Rockmore scored on back-to-back possessions for the Jackets as the Choctaws went 2-for-4 at the foul line to give LETU back a 71-69 lead. Trotter would step up again for MC with a game-tying bucket with 1:12 to play.
On their next possession the Jackets missed three shots and the Choctaws got the ball back with 2.5 seconds differential between the game clock and shot clock. With time winding down, Christmas tried a pull-up jumper, but it was blocked by Smith who was then fouled by Christmas going for the rebound with 2.4 seconds to play.
Smith, a 72.6 percent free throw shooter, went to the line for a 1-and-1, but missed the attempt. The ball was tipped against the backboard before Louimeus stretch out a paw and tapped it home just as the clock hit zeros.
Majors led the Jackets with 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the floor to go with four rebounds and three assists. Rockmore finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds, eight on the offensive end. Smith and Dusty Evers each had eight points. The Jackets were 29-of-74 (39.2%) from the field and 12-of-18 at the foul line. They were dead even in rebounds with the Choctaws and only committed 11 turnovers. The team received key contributions from the entire bench.
The Choctaws shot 27-of-62 (43.5%) from the field and were 14-of-21 at the foul line. In addition to Christmas’ 20 points, Trotter had 14 points, seven rebounds and three blocks. Tyler Winford added seven points and eight boards. MC committed 15 turnovers in the game. This was Mississippi College’s first in-season two game losing streak since the 2003-04 season.
The Jackets now own a two game winning streak against the Choctaws for the first time in school history. LeTourneau is now tied for fourth place in the American Southwest Conference East Division. The top four teams make the ASC Playoffs.
LeTourneau hits the road for its next game at ASC rival Louisiana College on Thursday night at 7:30. The game can be listened to online at www.audiosportsonline.net and can be watched via archived web cast at www.summitticket.com.
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Press release submitted by LeTourneau on Feb 02 2008 at 07:33 PM

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