This time of year creates more than a little anxiety for junior-college coaches. It has nothing to do with holiday shopping.
The Angelina College Roadrunners resume play tonight, exactly three full weeks since the team’s last game: a thrilling 89-84 overtime win on the road against conference foe Kilgore. The win moved AC to 9-4, 2-2 on the season, good enough for a third-place tie in Region XIV’s South Zone. In addition, both of AC’s conference wins came on the road.
Now comes the hard part. The team has to regroup and regain its hard-earned momentum before Saturday, when the most grueling two months of the season begin. The ‘Runners will play 15 conference games in the next eight weeks – all in an effort to claim a spot in the very same conference tournament they’ll be hosting in March.
As is usually the case, head coach Todd Neighbors made sure to schedule at least one “tune-up” game before resuming league play. Tonight, AC will host McLennan College, with the Highlanders boasting a 13-1 record. Facing such a tough team after a long layoff equates to throwing his guys into the fire, but Neighbors has never been one to ease his way back into the grind.
Jerami Grace (15.2 ppg) and Shannon Bogues (15.1 ppg) lead the Highlanders in scoring; Zach Charles leads the team in rebounding at 8.1 boards per game.
AC’s Corinthian Ramsey (23.9 ppg) leads the ‘Runners – and Region XIV – in scoring, with Kahari Beaufort (14.6 ppg) and Trent Brinkley (13.8 ppg) right behind him.
Game time at Shands Gymnasium is 7 p.m.
The game will be live-streamed by logging onto roadrunnerslive.com. Pre-game commentary starts at 6:55 p.m.
The e-mail address for AC’s Sports Information Director is gstallard@angelina.edu
