The Region XIV men’s and women’s conference basketball tournaments begin Tuesday at the Centenary Gold Dome.
Region XIV is part of the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division I. The event runs through Saturday with the women’s and men’s championship games set for 4 and 7 p.m., respectively.
The men’s tournament features 12 teams and the women’s eight. The winners receive automatic bids to their respective national tournaments.
The Bossier Parish Community College men (19-10) open the tournament against Lamar State College-Port Arthur (19-11) on Tuesday.
The BPCC women (13-17) face No. 3 seed Angelina College (26-3) at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the the first round.
Tyler (Texas) Junior College (21-6) is the defending men’s champion. The Apaches defeated Kilgore 59-56 in the championship game last year in Jacksonville, Texas.
East Zone champion Navarro (Corsicana, Texas) College (23-6) is the No. 1 seed. South Zone champ Jacksonville (20-10) is No. 2.
Navarro was ranked No. 24 in the latest NJCAA Division I poll. Tyler was No. 22.
Trinity Valley Community College’s Tyson Jolly, a 6-foot-4 guard, leads the conference in scoring with a 22.2 average. He was ranked as the No. 10 junior college prospect in the nation by jucorecruiting.com.
Kevin Norman, a guard from Angelina College (Lufkin, Texas), is the third-leading scorer at 19.1 points per game.
BPCC sophomore guard Eric Parrish, a Nevada signee, is fourth in scoring at 18.2 per game.
Tyler Junior College (26-4) is the No. 1 seed in the women’s tournament and perennial national power Trinity Valley (25-3) is No. 2.
Trinity Valley has two of the league’s top four scorers. Curtessia Dean, a 5-10 guard, averages 18.6 points per game. Arleighshya McElroy, a 5-9 guard who has signed with West Virginia, averages 18.3.
BPCC sophomore guard Monette Bolden is the league’s second-leading scorer at 22.3 points per game.
Trinity Valley was ranked No. 4 in the latest NJCAA Division I poll.
Last year, the Lady Cardinals lost to Kilgore in the semifinals then made it to the national title game, falling to Tallahassee.
Trinity Valley has dominated the conference, winning it 25 of the last 26 years. The Lady Cardinals have played in five of the last six national championship games.
In the last 23 years, they have played in 12 title games, winning an NJCAA record eight.
Tyler and Angelina were ranked No. 12 and No. 14, respectively, in the Division I poll.
San Jacinto College won last year’s tournament, but it won’t be defending. The school has dropped both its women’s and men’s programs.
