ALEXANDRIA, La. – Huston-Tillotson University's 2024-25 men's basketball season came to an end Friday as the Rams came up short in the opening round of the postseason Red River Athletic Conference tournament.
After ending the regular season on a four-game winning streak, which included a thrilling Homecoming Saturday win over Jarvis Christian last week, the Rams faced the RRAC's regular-season champion and NAIA's No. 2-ranked team in the nation in LSU–Alexandria; the Generals advanced to the tournament semifinals with a 77-66 win.
The Rams gave a commendable performance Friday against the Generals (26-2), who defeated HT by an average of 29.5 points in their two regular-season matchups. The competitive showing against LSU–Alexandria, only a few miles from the LSUA campus, brought further attention to head coach
John A. Smith's Rams team, which won six of its last nine regular-season matchups.
"It was not the ending we wanted, but we went punch-for-punch with the nation's No. 2-ranked team for 38 minutes without our point guard," Smith said after the game, referring to senior
Jayce Wright playing only eight minutes. "Mistakes on the court turn into lessons and building blocks as this program pushes forward."
Though the Rams finished the season 10-17, they exceeded the expectations of the conference, whose coaches picked them to finish 13th out of 13 teams in the preseason RRAC poll.
"We gained respect from the national NAIA media, and the basketball sportswriters that were on hand in Alexandria," Smith said. "We were picked last at the start of the season, but made the tournament despite the noise, and we will be back."
The Rams kept pace with the Generals throughout the first half, and used a run of nine unanswered points to cut LSUA's lead to one point after the Generals opened a 40-30 lead early in the second half.
Braelon Seals knocked down a trio of 3-pointers in less than a minute to pull the Rams to within a single point.
Even as the Generals controlled the pace of play in the second half, the Rams refused to go away quietly. It was not until the final 2:46 of the game when the host school began to feel comfortable with an 11-point margin.
Seals finished the game with 15 points, while sophomore
Ja'Patrick Blackmon led the Rams with 17 points. HT graduate student
Charles Hallmon finished the game with 13 points and nine rebounds. His 13 points in his final collegiate game matched his team-leading season average.
The Rams honored five seniors on Homecoming Saturday: Blackmon, Wright,
Timothy Bradford, Khuath Gatkouth, and
Latrell Goodwin. With the exception of Blackmon, the seniors were all transfers who made their HT debuts this season, and were a big part of leading the Rams into the postseason.
– HT –
