.jpg "Image") The 17-11 EMCC Lions fell to Holmes, 77-67, in Wednesday’s semifinals of the 2009 NJCAA Region 23 Basketball Tournament being held at Mississippi College.
The 10-point regional loss to the Bulldogs marked EMCC’s third setback to Holmes on the season. During the regular season, Holmes prevailed by scores of 82-68 in Scooba and 68-63 in Goodman.
During Wednesday’s regional action in Clinton, the Bulldogs scored seven straight points early in the contest to take a 17-8 lead with 13:20 remaining. The Lions answered with an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to a single point (17-16) by the midway point of the opening period. Later in the half with EMCC still trailing by a point (25-24) following a Larry Foster basket, Holmes’ Al Graham hit back-to-back 3-pointers to ignite an 11-3 run that gave the Bulldogs a 36-27 halftime advantage.
After surviving 12 first-half turnovers, the Lions cut a 13-point deficit with eight minutes remaining to four points by going on an 11-2 spurt. Freshman Terence Bennett’s three-point play and Darian Donald’s put-back basket sandwiched a Holmes turnover to pull EMCC to within four points (62-58) with 5:35 left in the game. The Lions had a chance to make it a one-possession game after Holmes’ Gabe Osagie missed a pair of free throws, but Foster misfired on a subsequent trey attempt. The Bulldogs’ Jonathan Ratliff countered with a three-point play to make it a seven-point contest (65-58) with 4:10 on the clock.
East Mississippi would not get any closer the rest of the way, as the Bulldogs pulled away for the 10-point triumph. Holmes will meet Mississippi Gulf Coast in Thursday’s 8 p.m. championship game of the NJCAA Region 23 Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Finishing the season with a 17-11 overall record, head coach Mark White’s Lions were led by the Starkville tandem of Coco Ware and Woodie Howard with 16 and 14 points, respectively. Donald of Caledonia High School added a dozen points, while Foster scored all nine of his points in the first half and Bennett tallied all of his nine points in the second stanza.
Graham and Randy Lightfoot led the way for the Bulldogs with 13 points apiece, while Osagie and Clyde Moore added 11 and 10 points, respectively.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 05 March 2009 )
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.jpg "Image") Sophomore Angelique Burtts posted her seventh double-double of the year with 13 points and 10 rebounds to help lead the 22-5 Lady Lions to a 47-44 first-round victory over Northwest Mississippi Tuesday afternoon at the 2009 NJCAA Region 23 Basketball Tournament in Clinton.
With the victory, head coach Sharon Thompson’s 22-5 Lady Lions advance to meet MACJC state champion Jones County in Wednesday’s semifinal-round action slated for a 6 p.m. tip-off on the MC campus. The EMCC-JCJC women’s contest will be aired on www.jcjc.tv or made available to fans by visiting www.jcjc.edu and clicking on the link.
Last week at the MACJC State Tournament in Ellisville, the host Lady Bobcats claimed a 59-54 semifinal-round victory over East Mississippi. However, the Lady Lions swept Jones County during the regular season, prevailing 78-76 in Ellisville during the season opener and by an 86-57 outcome in Scooba back on Dec. 2.
Following a sluggish start in which they shot just 24 percent (8-of-34 FGs) from the field in the first half, the Lady Lions connected on nine of their first 18 field-goal attempts after the break to mount a nine-point lead (39-30) midway through the closing period. After EMCC had increased its margin to double digits (41-31), the Lady Rangers made an 8-2 run to cut the deficit to four points (43-39) with three minutes remaining.
East Mississippi’s sophomore playmaker Kottia White of Jackson Murrah temporarily quelled NWCC’s comeback attempt by hitting her third 3-pointer of the half (in four attempts) to put the Lady Lions back up by seven points (46-39) with two minutes left in the contest. Beginning with a pair of free throws by Tamara Wadlington with 1:01 on the clock, Northwest made the first-round regional contest very interesting down the stretch.
With EMCC leading, 47-41, Wadlington cut the margin in half by nailing a 3-pointer with 22.1 seconds remaining after the Lady Lions could not collect two earlier NWCC misses during the possession. Not yet in the double-bonus at the stripe, EMCC had a pair of 1-and-1 opportunities at the line to all but ice the victory. With 21.1 seconds left, reserve Brittani Jones first misfired on the front end, but Ciera Thomas’s trey attempt was rebounded by EMCC’s Jasmine Abrams. In the waning seconds of regulation, White stepped to the line with another chance to essentially clinch the victory for the Lady Lions. However, she came up empty as well, giving the Lady Rangers one last opportunity to send the game into overtime. But, Sabrina Townsend’s errant three-point attempt was collected by Abrams as the game ended.
Though she struggled with 5-of-16 shooting from the field for the game, Lady Lion sophomore forward Angelique Burtts recorded her seventh double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds. The Georgia State signee from Conyers, Ga., also added two assists, two steals and four blocks. Receiving her first start since Jan. 20, sophomore forward Jasmine Abrams of Columbus scored 10 of her dozen points in the second half in addition to pulling down eight rebounds. Freshman forward Martika Hull of Southeast Lauderdale narrowly missed a double-double with nine points to go along with her game-high 14 rebounds.
The 18-8 Lady Rangers were led by Wadlington and Thomas with 16 and 11 points, respectively.
Having earned an 83-75 come-from-behind victory over Miss-Lou Conference winner Southern-Shreveport during Monday’s first-round regional action from Mississippi College, head coach Mark White’s 17-10 EMCC Lions will precede the East Mississippi women on Wednesday by taking on Holmes in men’s semifinal-round play beginning at noon.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 04 March 2009 )
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.jpg "Image") With career highs of 29 points and 17 rebounds, Woodie Howard helped spark a second-half comeback in the Lions’ 83-75 first-round win over Southern-Shreveport Monday afternoon at the NJCAA Region 23 Basketball Tournament in Clinton.
Trailing by 11 points (41-30) at halftime and down by 20 points five minutes into the second half, coach Mark White’s Lions scored 11 unanswered points to cut the deficit to single digits (54-45) with 11:28 remaining in the contest. Following a 3-pointer by Southern-Shreveport’s Whitworth Treasure that put the Jaguars on top, 67-59, with 4:25 left, EMCC benefitted from a smothering full-court press and some clutch free-throw shooting to outscore SUSLA, 24-8, down the stretch to complete the 28-point turnaround and come away with the eight-point triumph.
The 17-10 Lions advance to take on MACJC North Division rival Holmes Wednesday at noon in the Region 23 tournament semifinals on the MC campus. The Bulldogs swept East Mississippi during the regular season, claiming an 82-68 road win in January and edging the Lions, 68-63, last month in Goodman.
Winners of the Miss-Lou Conference, the Jaguars of Southern-Shreveport used a 22-6 run early in the first half to mount a 27-12 advantage by the midway point of the opening period. After draining a season-high 13 three-point baskets in each of their two MACJC State Tournament outings last week in Ellisville, the Lions became reliant on the three-point shot early in their regional opener. In missing their first nine trey attempts against Southern-Shreveport, the Lions found themselves down by double digits at the intermission.
The Jaguars seemed to be in cruise control early in the second stanza, lengthening their cushion to 20 points (54-34) five minutes into the second half. A tip-in basket by Darian Donald of Columbus’ Caledonia High School and a 3-pointer by Starkville’s Coco Ware ignited an 11-0 EMCC run that cut the deficit to single digits (54-45) by the 11:28 mark. Trailing by eight points (67-59) with 4:25 left, the Lions turned up their defensive pressure, especially after made baskets and free throws. Southern-Shreveport’s inability to break EMCC’s active press resulted in numerous turnovers, allowing the Lions to convert easy baskets and get to the charity stripe.
The primary sparkplug in East Mississippi’s impressive second-half turnaround, Starkville’s Woodie Howard scored nine straight points for the Lions to help pull them to within a basket (67-65) with 3:42 remaining. Following a basket by SUSLA’s LeMario Harris, Ware knocked down a triple after making a steal and then sank one of two free throws the next possession to knot the score at 69-69 with 2:48 on the clock. EMCC took its first lead since early in the opening half on a driving layup by Jackson’s Terence Bennett with just under two minutes remaining. Donald hit both free throws following another EMCC steal and Ware scored on a feed from Bennett to put the Lions on top, 75-69, to stay.
After shooting just four free throws in the first half and making only 2-of-13 shots from beyond the arc, EMCC shot 23-of-31 from the line over the final 20 minutes, including 8-of-10 over the final minute to seal the victory. The Lions were also credited with 10 second-half steals and 16 for the contest.
With 19 points and 10 rebounds in the second half alone, Howard registered career highs of 29 points and 17 rebounds for the game to record his seventh double-double of the campaign. Ware added 21 points, eight rebounds and four steals, while Bennett tallied 11 of his 13 points in the second half. Donald was EMCC’s fourth player in double digits with 10 points on the day.
Treasure led the 19-10 Jaguars with a game-high 31 points, followed by Sean Thurston with 18 points for Southern-Shreveport.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 03 March 2009 )
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 Will Black (left) and Jordan Jamar earned all-tournament honors this past weekend in leading the EMCC golf team to a third-place showing in Forest.
Coach Dale Peay’s EMCC Lions moved from fifth to third during Sunday’s second round to finish three strokes behind tournament runner-up Northeast Mississippi. Mississippi Gulf Coast claimed the team title for the third consecutive week with a two-day total of 591 (296-295), while MGCCC’s Corey Ward edged Copiah-Lincoln’s Ryan Ratcliff by one stroke (143-144) to claim individual medalist honors.
Freshman Will Black of Calhoun City led the way for the Lions by firing a composite score of 148 (76-72) to tie for fourth place individually and garner all-tournament honors. Black shot a 1-over-par 72 on the final day to tie Northwest Mississippi’s Grant Goforth for the No. 4 spot. Joining Black on this weekend’s all-tournament team was fellow EMCC freshman Jordan Jamar of Bossier City, La. Highlighted by an opening-round, 1-over-par 72, Jamar finished in a sixth-place tie with Northeast Mississippi’s Blake Hatfield with a two-day total of 150.
Former Northwest Rankin standout Garrett Alford tied for 16th place by carding a 154 score (79-75) for the Lions. Rounding out EMCC’s scorecard on the par-71, 6,027-yard layout were Belmont’s Trey Adams (80-82—162) and James Winter of Brandon (79-86--165), who placed 35th and 43rd, respectively. Competing as an individual scorer for the weekend, EMCC sophomore Hal Larkin of Caledonia tied for 10th place with a two-day effort of 153 (76-77).
The fourth MACJC golf event of the spring will take place Sunday and Monday (March 8-9) at the Wolf Hollow Golf Course. The two-day tournament will be hosted by Copiah-Lincoln Community College.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 03 March 2009 )
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 A.E. Wood Coliseum on the campus of Mississippi College will be the site of this week’s NJCAA Region 23 Basketball Tournament. Both of EMCC’s basketball teams will compete in regional tournament competition this week in Clinton.
Men’s first-round action will take place Monday, while the women’s opening-round play is set for Tuesday on the MC campus. The semifinal-round contests will be held on Wednesday, while the championship games are currently slated for Thursday. However, both championship games could be rescheduled for Friday if Mississippi College is chosen to host an NCAA Division III Tournament game on Thursday.
Making their first NJCAA Region 23 appearance since 2005, coach Mark White’s 16-10 EMCC Lions take on Miss-Lou Conference champion Southern-Shreveport Monday at 2 p.m. The winner will advance to meet the winner of Monday’s first-round game between Copiah-Lincoln and Holmes Wednesday at noon.
The other side of the men’s bracket features MACJC State Champion Jones County against North Division champion Itawamba in Monday’s opening round, along with an MACJC South Division first-round battle between Mississippi Gulf Coast and Pearl River.
Set to participate in their first Region 23 tournament since the 1998-99 season, coach Sharon Thompson’s 21-5 EMCC women are set to face North Division rival Northwest Mississippi Tuesday at noon in first-round action. East Mississippi swept the Lady Rangers during the regular season, claiming a convincing 84-65 home win just prior to the Christmas holiday break and posting a thrilling 93-92 double-overtime triumph at Northwest to close out the month of January.
The winner of the EMCC-Northwest women’s battle will advance to meet the winner of Tuesday’s opening-round contest pitting MACJC State Champion Jones County and Southwest Mississippi Wednesday at 6 p.m.
The other side of the women’s Region 23 bracket features MACJC South Division foes Copiah-Lincoln versus East Central in Tuesday’s first-round play, along with Itawamba against Miss-Lou Conference champion Meridian Community College.
The men’s and women’s winners of the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament in Clinton will advance to the NJCAA National Tournament to take place March 17-21 in Kansas. The men’s national tournament will be held at the Hutchinson Sports Arena in Hutchinson, while the women’s tournament will be contested at the Salina Bicentennial Center in Salina.
With their most wins since the 1997-98 campaign, the EMCC men knocked off Mississippi Gulf Coast, 91-85, in first-round state tournament play last week in Ellisville before dropping a 76-72 decision in the semis to eventual state runner-up Copiah-Lincoln. In the midst of their best season since going 21-6 overall as undefeated North Division champions in 1992-93, EMCC’s Lady Lions earned a 67-58 opening-round state tournament triumph over Southwest Mississippi last week before having their 11-game winning streak snapped by virtue of a 59-54 setback in the semifinals to eventual state champion Jones County.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 28 February 2009 )
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