By Ryan Johnston
The Rangers had no problem mobilizing to make their game Wednesday against the St. Philip’s Tigers a close one, but failed to overcome them in the end with a score of 92-85.
However, two incidents during the game overshadowed that loss.
A player from the Tigers caused a commotion when he was escorted off the court by his teammates while slurring profanities at the referee for calling a foul against him.
The Tigers then rose from their bleachers in disapproval when the referee called four technical fouls, which equaled eight free-throws for the Rangers.
“That was a big swing for us,” basketball coach Vincent Lockhart said. “It swung momentum in our favor.”
However, kinesiology sophomore Arron Cochran said the Rangers did not benefit from this in the manner they should have.
“It was to our advantage, but we didn’t use it to our advantage,” Cochran said. “We didn’t make the free throws; it was poor tonight.”
Shortly after the uproar, Cochran fell to the ground at the end of the court and screamed. He had a cramp in his leg that prevented him from playing for a short period.
The paramedics brought a gurney with them, but were turned away when no serious injury was reported.
Neither Lockhart or Cochran knew that the paramedics were called.
“They thought I broke something because I had screamed,” Cochran said. “It may not have been broke, but it felt like it broke.”
With all tensions from the game aside, Cochran said the team is improving.
“We get better and better every game,” he said. “If we concentrate on free throws, we could win.”
Lockhart agrees, but said there were other areas that also needed improvement, such as defense. “There are a lot of things we could improve on,” Lockhart said. “We need to continue finishing our shots.”
“If we made better decisions, we would have done better,” Cochran said. “Our team decision-making wasn’t good.”
At the end of the game, Lockhart said that the team is improving, but needs to develop in many areas.
“We have a young team,” Lockhart said. “We have to mature and develop into a team than can finish. Overall, we did a good job. It’s frustrating when you don’t get the win, but if we continue to improve, we’ll be OK.”
During their first match of the season Oct. 25 against Southwest Texas Junior College the Rangers lost 79-89.