The 12-team men’s tournament begins Tuesday, March 1, at 1 p.m., with seventh-seeded Blinn College (16-14 overall, 9-10 Region XIV) battling 10th-seeded Tyler Junior College (14-15, 9-10) at 6 p.m. The winner of that matchup will face No. 2 seed Lee College (25-4, 17-2) at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 3.
Other first-round matches include No. 8 Bossier Parish Community College vs. No. 9 Angelina Community College; No. 5 Navarro College vs. No. 12 Trinity Valley Community College; and No. 6 Paris Junior College vs. No. 11 Coastal Bend College.
Kilgore College (27-2, 17-2) – ranked third nationally – is the tournament’s top seed.
The championship game will be played at 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 5.
The 17th-ranked Blinn College women’s team (25-4, 14-4 Region XIV) enters the eight-team tournament as the top seed after winning a tiebreaker with Trinity Valley with a coin flip. The Buccaneers will see their first action in the opening round against eighth-seeded Paris Junior College (10-19, 6-12) at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, March 2. The winner of that game will take on either No. 4 seed Panola (21-7, 12-6) or fifth-seeded Kilgore (20-10, 10-8) in the semifinal round at 1 p.m. on Friday, March 4.
Also in the first round, No. 2 Trinity Valley battles No. 7 Bossier Parish and No. 3 Tyler takes on No. 6 Angelina.
The championship game is set for 4 p.m. on Saturday, March. 5.
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 42 NJCAA national championships since 1987.
