| EMCC Lions announce eight-man basketball signing class |
|
|
.jpg "Image") On the heels of the most successful season in EMCC men’s basketball history, reigning NJCAA District 15 Coach of the Year Mark White has announced the addition of eight signees for the 2010-11 hoops campaign. Locally within EMCC’s district area, the Lions have added backcourt performers Raymond Walters from New Hope High School and Rickey McCollum of Caledonia High School. A 5-foot-11 left-hander, Walters averaged 16.5 points per game this past season for head coach Drew McBrayer’s New Hope Trojans. McCollum, a 5-foot-9 point guard, averaged 20.8 points and 5.5 assists an outing last year for Caledonia head coach Josh Scott’s Confederates. From the nearby Meridian area, East Mississippi has inked 6-foot-7 forward Marcus Heidelberg of Quitman High School, who averaged 9.3 points and 6.5 rebounds per contest as a senior for head coach Steve Hampton’s 16-8 Quitman Panthers. Also expected to give the EMCC Lions some added height along the front line next season are incoming forwards Millaun Brown (6-6, 210) of West Bolivar High School in Rosedale and Darris Ollie (6-5, 190) from S.V. Marshall High School in Lexington. Brown averaged 9.7 points, 7.9 boards and 1.9 blocks per game in helping lead head coach Willie Thomas’ 26-9 West Bolivar Eagles to the 2009-10 Class 2A state championship. Ollie averaged 10.4 points and 5.2 rebounds an outing this past year in helping pace head coach Milton Ray’s Marshall Tigers to a 26-2 record and No. 1 regular-season state ranking among Class 3A schools. Additionally in the backcourt, East Mississippi has signed 6-foot-2 guard Tradarrius McPhearson of Raymond High School and 5-foot-11 playmaker Dione Milsap of Yazoo County High School. McPhearson led head coach Willie Neal’s RHS Rangers in scoring (19.5 ppg) and rebounding (8.6 rpg), while Milsap earned first-team all-district honors after averaging 14.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists per contest for head coach Michael Tardy’s Yazoo County Panthers. Making his way to the Scooba campus all the way from the Republic of Senegal in western Africa, point guard Louis Adams is being counted on to make immediate contributions to the EMCC basketball program. The 6-foot-1 playmaker owns plenty of international experience, having averaged 11.1 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.6 steals per game while playing for Senegal’s U18 National Team at the 2008 FIBA Africa U18 Championship held in Alexandria, Egypt. “We’re very excited about this year’s recruiting class,” said White, the reigning NJCAA District 15 Coach of the Year. “We believe they will fit in very well with our team and within our system. The thing that excites us the most is the fact that they are all great kids with tremendous family support.” This past season, the EMCC Lions enjoyed a record-setting campaign in posting a school-best 27-7 overall record and making a first-ever appearance in the NJCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in Hutchinson, Kan. Ranked 12th in the season-ending NJCAA Division I poll, the 2009-10 East Mississippi squad also claimed a school-first MACJC North Division men’s title with a 10-2 league mark, along with earning a runner-up finish in the EMCC-hosted MACJC State Basketball Tournament. |
|
| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 28 April 2010 ) |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|