SCOOBA – The East Mississippi Community College men’s and women’s basketball teams are looking to their remaining pair of regular-season contests to decide their respective postseason tournament fates. On the heels of Monday’s home losses to Itawamba, EMCC is set to close out the regular season with a trip to Coahoma tonight followed by Monday’s home matchups with Northeast Mississippi.
Currently sitting in 12th place in the MACCC men’s hoops standings with a 4-8 conference mark, head coach Billy Begley’s 14-14 EMCC Lions battled MACCC champion Itawamba the entire 40 minutes before dropping Monday’s hard-fought 64-46 home decision to the nationally 25th-ranked Indians. Within the men’s standings, EMCC currently sits just one game behind Northwest Mississippi, Hinds and Northeast Mississippi, who are all tied for ninth place heading into the final two games of the regular season.
The EMCC women presently sit in a three-way tie for 13th place in the MACCC standings with Mississippi Delta and Hinds at 2-10 in conference play. Following Monday’s 56-42 home setback to Itawamba, head coach Isaiah Butler’s 5-19 EMCC Lady Lions currently sit just one game behind Southwest Mississippi and two games behind Northeast Mississippi within the women’s standings.
The upcoming NJCAA Region 23 Basketball Tournaments will consist of 12-team fields, which will each comprise of the top 11 men’s and women’s teams from the Mississippi Association of Community Colleges Conference (MACCC) and the men’s and women’s team champions from the Louisiana Community Colleges Athletic Conference (LCCAC). The top eight MACCC teams and Louisiana champion automatically qualify for tournament play.
Both region tournaments will consist of four rounds played in single-elimination formats. With the top four teams from the men’s and women’s final regular-season MACCC basketball standings all receiving opening-round byes, the first two rounds of this year’s tournaments will be played on the campus sites of the higher seeds on March 5 and March 7. The separate week-long tournaments are then set to conclude with men’s semifinals on March 10 and finals on March 12 as well as the women’s semifinals on March 11 and finals on March 13. The semifinal-round games will be hosted by the highest remaining seed in the respective tournaments.
In their most recent men’s action, the home-standing Lions challenged front-running Itawamba from the opening tip-off to the final buzzer before falling to the Indians in Scooba. After trailing 25-19 at the intermission, EMCC overcame a 15-point, second-half deficit (38-23) with a 9-0 run midway through the second stanza.
Later in the closing half, a three-point play by EMCC freshman point guard Maurice Henderson cut ICC’s lead to seven points with six minutes remaining in the contest. Shortly thereafter, the visiting Indians scored 11 unanswered points to move ahead by 19 points and essentially lock down their 12th consecutive win on the year.
The Lions were led by freshman guard Jace O’Neal’s game-high 15 points. Henderson followed with 12 points off the EMCC bench.
The ICC men had three double-digit scorers in Damarion Winston (14), DJ Davis (12) and Tim Holliday (10).
Most recently on the women’s side, the Lady Lions battled from behind the entire contest against ICC after the visitors jumped out to a 14-1 advantage. After trailing 18-8 following the opening 10 minutes of play, EMCC scored the first six points of the second quarter to pull within four points.
The Lady Lions then cut into Itawamba’s 31-20 halftime lead by scoring the first five points of the second stanza on Cenaya Calhoun-Jingles’ three-pointer followed by a Liberty Hughes basket. The Lady Indians reclaimed their double-digit advantage by the end of the third quarter and maintained that margin for the remainder of the contest to claim their seventh straight victory during the month of February.
The EMCC women were paced by reigning All-MACCC guard Dukiaha Jones, who scored 12 of her game-high 17 points after halftime while also collecting nine rebounds during the contest.
The Lady Indians were led by Tootie Lockett and Starr Amos with 15 points apiece.
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