RiverHawks Open LSC Tournament Play Against Angelo State
BARTLESVILLE, Okla. - Northeastern State opens its second season Wednesday at noon when the RiverHawks open quarterfinal play in the Lone Star Conference Tournament.
The RiverHawks (19-8), the No. 2 seed from the LSC North Division will play Angelo State University (17-10), the No. 3 seed in the South Division of the LSC at the Bartlesville High School Bruin Field house. The two teams have met once before, with the Rams taking a 67-52 win at San Angelo State.
The RiverHawks have won 6-of their last 7 games entering the Angelo State game.
Other quarterfinal games will have North Division's No. 4 seed Southwestern State (12-15) playing the South's No. 1 seed Midwestern State (25-2) at 2 p.m.; North's No. 3 seed Texas A&M-Commerce (19-8) battling the South's No. 2 seed Tarleton State (21-6) at 6 p.m. with Central Oklahoma (22-5), the North Division's No. 1 seed taking on the South's No. 4 seed West Texas A&M (15-12) at 8:30 p.m.
"This stage of the season I don't think it's a matter of who you play but as much as how well your are playing, and how well you prepare yourself to play" said Northeastern State head coach Larry Gipson. "The top eight teams in the Lone Star Conference are all good basketball teams. All are capable of winning and I don't think there'll be any upsets in any of the games.
"We are playing a team that is a very high scoring team a team that relies much more on their offense than defense, like UCO," said Gipson." I think they will score points in bunches.
The Rams, average 85 points a game, main offensive threat is Marshall Corbett, who leads the Lone Star Conference in scoring. Corbett, a 6-3 junior guard, a transfer from Kilgore Junior College, is scoring 24 points a game. He also ranks No. 2 in free throw percentage at .905 sinking 201 of 222 attempts and leads the LSC in 3-point shoot at .494, draining 80-of-162 attempts.
"Corbett is as good an offensive player that there is in the league," said Gipson. "We are going to have to do a good job on him and on the rest of the team."
Corbett is back in the scoring by Stavon Williams, 6-4 senior guard, who transferred from Utah State. Williams is averaging 14.6 points a game and Johnny Barnes, who is scoring 11.6 points a contest. Barnes, 6-6 senior forward, leads the Rams in rebounding with 9.2 caroms a game.
Defensively the Rams are giving up 79 points a game to rank 11th in the Lone Star Conference.
The RiverHawks offensively are averaging 68 points a game and are the No.2 defensive club in the LSC, giving up just 61 points a game.
Northeastern State's scoring is led by Dominique Gaines, who joined the team at mid-term, is averaging 18 points. Jason Jones 6-7 post follows at 15.5 points. Jones is the league's top rebounder pulling down 9.3 boards a game.
Marlon Burnett, 6-2 senior, who sustain an injury against Southwestern State in the season finale, is expected to play, is scoring 12 points a game. Antoine Branch, 6-2 guard, a transfer from Coffeyville Junior College, is scoring 10.3 points an outing.
The winner of the Northeastern State/Angelo State game will advance to the semifinals against the winner of the Midwestern State and Southwestern State contest at 6 p.m. on Friday at the Bartlesville High School's Bruin Field House.
