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The seventh-ranked EMCC Lions will look to defend their regional basketball title at this week’s NJCAA Region 23 Basketball Tournament in Clinton. Men’s action begins Monday followed by first-round women’s play on Tuesday at Mississippi College’s A.E. Wood Coliseum.
Seeded first in the men’s tournament with the best regular-season record against regional competition, head coach Mark White’s 21-4 EMCC Lions are the reigning Region 23 champions and two-time defending regular-season champions of the MACJC’s North Division. Having defeated Itawamba in the regional title game a season ago, the seventh-ranked Lions will open this year’s tournament by taking on East Central Community College for the fourth time this season Monday at 2 p.m.
EMCC has knocked off the eighth-seeded Warriors all three previous times this season, including an 81-64 win over East Central during last week’s opening round of the MACJC State Tournament at Copiah-Lincoln. The Lions also swept ECCC during the regular season, winning convincingly, 90-57, in Decatur and squeaking by, 81-77, in Scooba within a two-week span back in November.
Monday’s first-round men’s action tips off with No. 4 seed and state runner-up Pearl River against fifth-seeded Northeast Mississippi at noon. The night session features No. 2 seed and state champion Mississippi Gulf Coast versus seventh-seeded Itawamba at 6 p.m., followed by third-seeded Southern-Shreveport (La.) of the Miss-Lou Conference against No. 6 seed Jones County at 8 p.m.
Two years removed from claiming the 2009 NJCAA Region 23 women’s title in Clinton, head coach Sharon Thompson’s 14-9 EMCC Lady Lions open this year’s regional tournament by meeting state tournament runner-up Jones County Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. The EMCC women knocked off the then-state champion JCJC Lady Bobcats, 71-56, in first-round action of last year’s NJCAA Region 23 Tournament. Tuesday’s EMCC-JCJC women’s regional contest will be televised live on www.jcjc.tv.
Jones County, state champions in 2009 and 2010, swept the Lady Lions during this year’s regular season, opening the 2010-11 campaign with an 85-73 victory in Ellisville and holding on for a 72-71 triumph four weeks later in Scooba despite a valiant EMCC comeback attempt.
Tuesday’s opening-day women’s action begins with an Itawamba-Baton Rouge matchup at noon, followed by a 2 p.m. contest pitting state champion and defending Region 23 champion Copiah-Lincoln with Holmes. Tuesday’s nightcap will feature Mississippi Gulf Coast and Meridian in an 8 p.m. tip-off.
Men’s semifinal-round play will be contested Wednesday afternoon at noon and 2 p.m., with the women’s semis set for the night session at 6 and 8 p.m. With the respective regional tournament winners advancing to next month’s (March 15-19) NJCAA National Tournament in Kansas, Thursday’s MC-hosted regional championship games will be played at 6 p.m. (women’s) and 8 p.m. (men’s) in Clinton.
Fans will be able to get final men’s and women’s results from the 2011 NJCAA Region 23 Basketball Tournament throughout the week at www.jucoweekly.com.