BRENHAM, Texas – Blinn College women’s basketball held a lead throughout the game against Kilgore but it didn’t come easy. The Buccaneers were able to fight off Kilgore for a 68-54 Dec. 3 in Brenham.
“This was a good win for us,” said Blinn head coach Jeff Jenkins. “Right now any time we can get a conference win is big because we are a little banged up right now.”
Although Blinn had a lead for the majority of the game, Kilgore College continually inched closer to the Buccaneers but the home team had enough in the tank to hold off Kilgore and pick up its second conference victory.
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Brianna Luton only scored five points in the victory but she was tasked with guarding Kilgore’s top scorer and slowing her down enough to earn praise from coach Jenkins.
“All I had to do is play aggressive and hold her down,” Luton said after the game. “I didn’t want to put her on the line so that she could get easy shots.”
On the offensive end, Katelynn Johnson picked up her game in the second half when she scored 15 of her 20 total points in the final 20 minutes. Chant Lewis and Penina Faumui each scored 11 points while Nancy Warioba added nine points in the win.
Lewis came out strong in the first half with eight points as she had four early points to help Blinn grab a 21-10 lead. Kilgore would battle back in the first half and get within two points of the lead but never claimed the lead for themselves in the final minutes of the first half.
Faumui was able to crash the boards on a number of occasions in the first half to give the Buccaneers some second-chance opportunities and she also scored seven points in the first half and helped to give Blinn a 32-26 lead at the break.
After being held to only five points in the first half, Johnson broke out in the latter half right from the start in scoring the first five points in the second half and finishing with 15 in the final 20 minutes to end with 20.
Warioba took her turn on the offensive glass as she grabbed rebounds to give the Buccaneers extra possessions while scoring seven points in the process.
Kilgore was able to cut the Blinn lead down to four at 58-54 with a little over three minutes remaining but a huge 3-pointer by Johnson and a technical foul on Kilgore coach Roy Thomas took the air out of the Kilgore comeback.
From there, Blinn was able to maintain its lead and finish with a 14-point victory to improve to 2-1 in conference and 7-4 overall.
Blinn will next travel to face Paris Junior College on Dec. 6 at 4 p.m.
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 30 NJCAA national championships since 1987. For more information, visit www.buccaneersports.com.
