BRENHAM, Texas – With the game tied at 68-68 and 7.8 seconds left, Blinn College men’s basketball point guard Juwan Green split the Navarro College defense and hit a layup as time expired to give the Buccaneers a 70-68 victory Saturday evening inside the P.E. Building.
“Coach always tells me to use the ball screen and so I used that and split between defenders,” Green said. “They cheated over on the ball screen and I took advantage.”
The victory snaps a two-game conference losing streak as the Buccaneers improve to 10-5 overall and 2-4 in Region XIV conference play.
“We played for 40 minutes and gave a tremendous amount of effort,” said Scott Schumacher, Blinn head coach. “Sure, we made mistakes but we never let those mistakes define us during our game.”
Markques Houston was able to hit shots from the outside and led the Buccaneers with 19 points while Antione Lister was the only other Blinn player in double figures with 10 points. Kobe Wrice finished with nine points and Green tossed in eight points to go along with his game winner.
“I felt good during warmups and that was able to carry over to the game with some made outside shots for me,” Houston said. “This game showed that we have fight and we have to play like this every game.”
Blinn started off the game strong with an early 15-10 lead after a bucket in the lane by James Harrison with 13:07 left in the half. Blinn and Navarro traded baskets for almost all of the remainder of the half until the Buccaneers closed out the half on a 7-1 run.
That late run and 11 points from Houston in the first half helped Blinn out to a 38-21 lead at the half.
Blinn tried to protect its lead in the second half against the hot outside shooting of Navarro. Blinn was able to cling to a 60-47 lead after a basket by Curtlon Wesley with 8:40. Navarro followed with 10 straight points to get within 60-57 with 5:43 left in the game.
Navarro tied the game at 63-63 with 2:11 left but Houston hit a big 3-pointer with 1:12 left to give the Buccaneers a 68-64 lead. Navarro scored four straight to tie the game at 68-68 with 7.8 left. That is when Green took the inbounds pass dribbled down the length of the floor and split the Navarro defense for a layup at the buzzer to give Blinn the victory.
Blinn will have another home game on Wednesday, Jan. 18 against Lone Star College – Tomball at 7:30 p.m.
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 34 NJCAA national championships since 1987. For more information, visit www.buccaneersports.com.