Bass fishing spawn is on, 3B YourSports BeaumontEnterprise.com/sports INSIDE Converted catcher helping out Astros bullpen, 2B • Southeast Texas weekend fishing report, 3B • NBA standings, schedule, 6B H-F needs basketball Lamar registers win in first SLC tournament appearance in four years coach, too OnLAMAR 76, NORTHWESTERN ST. 69 to semifinals n KATY Interim coach who By Christopher Dabe took team to playoffs is In recent seasons, this might returning to his position have been a game Lamar loses. But in recent seasons, Lamar at the middle school. never was good enough to FANNETT qualify for the Southland Con- ference tournament. By Jared Ainsworth Playing its first league tourna- ment game in four years, Lamar Keith Neal said he simply used a late-game run to beat drove the bus and watched. Northwestern State 76-69 to That’s his take on leading the advance to the league semifinal Hamshire-Fannett boys bas- round. The Cardinals (21-11) ketball team to its first playoff will play Stephen F. Austin at appearance and 6:05 p.m. today at the Merrell postseason win Center in Katy. since 2000 after he Against Northwestern State was named interim head coach in (16-16), Lamar led by 13 points December. early in the second half but For Neal, it was trailed by four with less than 3 a one-year experi- minutes left. After a basket by ence as he is now senior Charlie Harper, senior Keith Neal back at Hamshire- Mike James scored the tying Fannett Middle School as boys and go-ahead baskets on suc- basketball coach, a job he’s held cessive trips down the floor. for 10 years. That sparked a game-ending “All of the credit has to go 15-4 run in which Lamar went to the kids,” Neal said. “I just 7-for-9 in free throws. watched.” “We’ve had a lot of good first And he did on occasion drive halves with good leads, and the team’s bus to tournaments for some reason we gets loose and games. and we get complacent and let The 54-year-old Neal became teams back in the games,” said the interim coach when Anthony Pat Knight, Lamar’s first-year DeCello resigned in early De- coach. “And then instead of cember, a month into the season. quit, these guys come back. I Even then, Neal told the district wish we would do it from the he wanted to return to his middle start and it wouldn’t be that school job following the season. dramatic.” Along with coaching, he’s also a Lamar’s 21 victories now are seventh and eighth grade math the most since it won 26 games teacher. in the 1983-84 season. Lamar “This campus is great,” Neal last won a Southland tourna- said. “My house is paid for here ment game in 2007, toward the in Hamshire. I love this area. If I end of former coach Steve Roc- go up there and it doesn’t work caforte’s first season. out, then I’ve got to find a job Lamar plays today for its first somewhere else. If I was 35 or 40 trip to a conference title game I might would pursue it.” since it won the tournament Neal and the Longhorns title in 2000 and advanced to endured a dramatic end to the the NCAA tournament. season after falling to West In reaching today’s semifinal game, James led the Cardinals H-F, page 2B in scoring with 21 points. Senior Anthony Miles added 16, Photos by Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle Lamar forward Stan Brown celebrates after the Cardinals victory over the Northwestern State De- LAMAR, page 2B mons in a Southland Conference tournament game at the Merrell Center in Katy. A&M tops nOklahoma Aggies advance in Big 12 basketball tournament, will play No. 3 Kansas next. Lamar fan By Brent Zwerneman Jean Dun- can cheers Texas A&M point guard Dash her team on Harris called his teammates against the together late against Oklahoma Northwestern on Wednesday, and the on-court State Demons huddle featured five players, including guard Khris Middle- during the ton, A&M fans had hoped would second half of carry this team throughout the a Southland season. Conference Injuries had sidelined the tournament experienced duo of Harris and game at the Middleton for chunks of the Merrell Center season, however, so the group on Wednes- hug of five talented veterans day. Lamar — including forwards David won the game Loubeau and Ray Turner and 76-69. guard Elston Turner — offered a rare sight. And a welcome one for A&M fans following the Aggies’ 62-53 victory over the Sooners in the opening round of the Big 12 Loyal fans follow trail of red, Knights to Lamar tournament. COMMENTARY lies more with the family of her wardrobe, with exception “We’ve had our whole group Lamar coach Pat Knight and of the one season Pat Knight together except Kourtney Rober- ean Duncan shouts when his father, Bob, than with any wore blue and gold as an assis- son for the last (few) weeks, and her favorite team scores. school. tant coach at Akron. And even you get better in practice that JShe puts her hand to her She is part of a small fac- then, she doesn’t remember way,” A&M first-year coach Billy mouth when things get tense. tion of former Indiana fans wearing something other than Kennedy said. Like many of the red-clad she said is proud to fashion red at those games. It showed against OU, and fans at the Merrell Center, the themselves as proud Lamar But color coordination is ninth-seeded A&M’s prize is a 59-year-old blond-haired Dun- supporters after the Cardinals not what makes her a fan of the collision with top-seeded Kansas can’s mood changed with each Christopher Dabe beat Northwestern State 76-69 Knights. Nor is it the reason she (26-5) at 2 p.m. today. momentum swing in Lamar’s on Wednesday in a league left her Louisville home Friday “We feel confident because nerve-fraying victory Wednes- red,” she said. quarterfinal. for Beaumont to bring the we’ve played Kansas close,” day in the Southland Confer- More specifically, she has That the Knights have spent players cookies and cupcakes Elston Turner said. “We feel like ence tournament. always followed the Knight a majority of Duncan’s col- before they board the team bus we can beat them. It’s going to be This is her first season sup- family. lege basketball-following days or greet them in the hotel lobby tough, but I feel like with the way porting the Cardinals. Duncan is a 1976 Indiana wearing red — at Indiana and when the return from games — everything is going we can get But this is not her first season graduate from the small south- Texas Tech before Lamar — is the reasons they call her the win.” sporting red. ern Indiana town of Salem, and only a matter of convenience. “I’ve always followed the her college basketball loyalty She has not had to overhaul FANS, page 2B A&M, page 6B Jon Styf, Sports Editor, [email protected], (409) 838-2839; Section designed and copy edited by Dennis Meloncon, [email protected] 2B Thursday, March 8, 2012 BeaumontEnterprise.com College basketball TV schedule A&M, at Kansas City, Mo. ESPN2 — Big Ten Conference, first 1:30 p.m. FSN women’s Big 12 Con- round, Purdue vs. Nebraska, at 11 a.m. ESPN — Big East Confer- ference, quarterfinal, teams TBD, at Indianapolis ence, quarterfinal, Syracuse vs. Ex-catcher an asset Kansas City, Mo. 6:10 p.m. MyTx Lamar vs. Stephen West Virginia-UConn-DePaul winner, 4 p.m. ESPN2 — Big Ten Confer- F Austin, Katy at New York ence, first round, Northwestern vs. 7:30 p.m. FSN — women’s Big 12 11:30 a.m. ESPN2 — Big 12 Con- Minnesota, at Indianapolis Conference, quarterfinal, Texas A&M to Astros bullpen By Zachary Levine ference, quarterfinal, Kansas St. vs. 5 p.m. FSN — women’s Big 12 vs. Kansas, at Kansas City, Mo. Baylor, at Kansas City, Mo. Conference, quarterfinal, Oklahoma 8 p.m. ESPN — Big East Confer- Almost everything 1 p.m. ESPN — Big East Confer- vs. Oklahoma St.-Missouri winner, at ence, quarterfinal, Notre Dame vs. about David Carpenter’s ence, quarterfinal, Cincinnati vs. Kansas City, Mo. USF-Rutgers-Villanova winner, at transformation(s) from Georgetown-St. John’s-Pittsburgh 6 p.m. ESPN — Big East Confer- New York minor league catcher to winner, at New York ence, quarterfinal, Marquette vs. 10:30 p.m. FSN — Pac-12 Confer- major league pitcher was 1:30 p.m. ESPN2 — Big 12 Confer- Louisville-Seton Hall-Providence win- ence, quarterfinal, Oregon vs. Colo- complete. ence, quarterfinal, Kansas vs. Texas ner, at New York 7:30 p.m. rado-Utah winner, at Los Angeles Therewasjustonemore little big league detail to work out. So at the end of last year, Carpenter went to Astros clubhouse and equip- ment manager Carl Sch- neider and said he wanted a big league number. Not just to get off his back that 67 — the number fitting a spring training greenhorn — but to get back to the Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle No. 28 that he wore as an Houston’s David Carpen- amateur. ter pitches at the Astros “It feels like a big league spring training complex number and that I’m defi- at Osceola County Sta- nitely part of something,” dium on Tuesday, in Kis- Carpenter said.