SCOOBA — East Mississippi Community College will tip off its 2021-22 men’s basketball season tonight when the Lions welcome Copiah-Lincoln to Scooba for a 7:30 p.m. game at Keyes T. Currie Coliseum in the second game of a men’s-women’s doubleheader.
Seventh-year coach Billy Begley will have a quartet of returning starters to work with as the Lions try to regain the championship form of three years ago, when they won their first conference title since the 1930s.
All-Region 23 forward Jakorie Smith, one of the Lions’ three-year players, is back after averaging 14.5 points and 8.2 rebounds during EMCC’s 11-6 team last season. Over his first two seasons, Smith has shot 49 percent from the floor and 75 percent from the line.
Veteran guards Traemond Pittman and Danny Washington, who have totaled 54 career starts between them entering the 2021-22 season, combined to average 13.3 points and 6.3 assists per game last year.
Nick Walker will join Smith on EMCC’s formidable frontline after averaging 12.1 points and a team-high 8.0 rebounds per game a season ago in addition to connecting on 66 percent of his shots and 73 percent of his free throws. Walker is one of 48 returning players who were invited to participate in the prestigious JUCO Advocate hoops showcase this past summer.
Versatile guard Blake Butler, from Louisville, Ky., returns after averaging 12.1 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists per contest as a freshman.
East Mississippi also brings back third-year veteran forward Elijah Newsome, who redshirted the 2019-20 campaign, and reliable point guard Kevin Henry, who spent the 2019-20 season at Mississippi Delta.
Along with returning plenty of firepower from last year’s team, the Lions also welcome a half-dozen newcomers to this year’s veteran-laden EMCC squad.
Looking to make immediate contributions will be fellow Atlanta products Chris Newell and Brandon Deravine, who teamed together on ELW Takeover to win the Juneteenth 3-on-3 Hoop It Up Jamboree this past summer. The sharp-shooting Newell played a season of post-grad basketball at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, while Deravine previously gained experience at the University of Texas Permian Basin and most recently at Georgia-based Andrew College.
Also expected to make an immediate impact on this year’s EMCC squad will be versatile guard JaQuevias Tarvin, who earned Jackson Clarion-Ledger All-State and Dandy Dozen recognition a few years back as a prep standout at Brandon High School.
Other newcomers include freshman forward Jacob Reese of Starkville, and transfers Cortez McCarty of Stone, who played last year at Coahoma, and Atavius Jones of Starkville, who played tight end for the Copiah-Lincoln football team.
Copiah-Lincoln is beginning its first season under new coach David Sanders, who spent the past eight seasons at Callaway High School in Jackson, where his teams went 182-40 and won state championships in 2014, 2015 and 2020.
He will take over a Co-Lin team that went 3-11 a year ago, losing its last seven games.
EMCC’s opening week will continue at 6 p.m. Thursday when the Lions will host the Rangers of Northwest Mississippi.
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