CLINTON, Miss. – LSU Eunice’s historic season came to a disappointing end on Tuesday afternoon.
LSUE was looking to extend its already historic season (20 victories and a conference championship) with a deep run at the Region 23 Tournament in Mississippi, as the Bengals were making the first postseason appearance in program history — in only the program’s second year of existence.
LSUE though fell short of claiming its first postseason win with a 67-52 loss to Jone College at A.E. Wood Coliseum.
Things started off well enough for the Bengals as Isaiah Payne scored the first points of the game to give LSUE its first and only lead of the contest. Jones though would answer with a layup of its own which sparked a 10-2 run over a 3:38 span to give the Bobcats the lead for good.
LSUE struggled with shooting as the Bengals went 1-for-10 to start the contest and finished 18-for-61 (29.5%) from the field. LSUE also ended the game shooting 3-for-22 (13.6%) from three-point range.
The Bengals did cut the deficit to 21-16 after a Semaj Matthews layup with 6:01 before half. Matthews led LSUE with 11 points and 8 rebounds off the bench. Jones, however, would answer with a 10-2 run to close the half and go up 31-18 into the break.
The Bobcats would extend its lead to as many as 20 points in the second half, behind a game-high 25 points from Tradavis Thompson.
Jevon Berry would wrap up his LSUE career with a near double-double, scoring 9 points and 9 rebounds while Tyrese Sam also contributed 9 points in the losing effort.