BasketBall Lions fall in men’s, women’s action on court
SCOOBA/POPLARVILLE – East Mississippi Community College's basketball teams fell to Pearl River in men's and women's action during Thursday's MACCC play contested at the schools' respective home courts.
The EMCC women succumbed to Pearl River's smothering defense in being overwhelmed at home 8429, while the visiting Lions had their five-game winning streak snapped by dropping a hard-fought 54-52 overtime decision to the Wildcats.
In the one-sided women's contest played at Keyes T. Currie Coliseum, the Wildcats scored the first 16 points of the game while holding EMCC scoreless until Nakeria Scales' basket at the 3:12 mark of the opening quarter. Keshunti Nichols' three-pointer extended Pearl River's lead to 23-2 at the quarter break.
With Brandy Scott scoring the first 11 points of the second quarter, the visitors continued to dominate the game by outscoring the Lady Lions 31-4 in the second quarter. Jaliscia Florence's three-point play at the 3:52 mark widened the margin to 46-2, as the Wildcats took an insurmountable 54-6 halftime advantage. *
Pearl River maintained its defensive intensity and scoring prowess throughout the second stanza en route to the lopsided 55-point outcome. In limiting EMCC to just 23 percent field goal shooting (12-52 field goals) during their defensive clinic, the Wildcats notably held their eighth opponent of the season to fewer than 40 points scored in a game.
The Lady Lions were led in scoring by Ramya King and Kennedi Jimison with six and five points, respectively.
In the men's defensive battle played at Pearl River's Marvin R. White Coliseum, the home-standing Wildcats held the advantage for most of the night after jumping out to an 11-2 lead 5 minutes into the game on Carlous Williams' 3-pointer.
The Lions responded to Pearl River's early flurry with a 12-1 spurt that resulted in their lone lead (14-12) of the game coming on a Blake Butler basket midway through the opening half. By the end of the half, the Wildcats had built their lead back up to eight points (28-20) following consecutive made treys by Williams and Cam Brown.
Following the halftime break, Pearl River maintained a nine-point advantage (41-32) at the 7:23 mark of the second half on the heels one final possession. After Jacob Reese's defensive rebound of Brumfield's miss with 7 ticks left, Kevin Henry's desperation three-point attempt fell short at the final buzzer.
Though tightly guarded and being held to 7-of-19 shooting from the field for of back-to-back buckets by Ayub Nurhussien.
Sparked by Terrell Dixon's play off the bench, the Lions responded by scoring seven unanswered points to cut the deficit to 41-39 with 5 minutes remaining in regulation. Dixon helped keep EMCC within reach by scoring all 14 of his points during the second half on 6-of-8 shooting from the field. vered her purpose for giving
Butler then put the Lions ack to the community through on his shoulders by scoring er outreach and mission with the last two baskets of reguarkville Strong, Brandi Herlation in acrobatic style over ngton has been in charge the final minute to knot the f the nonprofit organization score at 48-48 with 20 secnce 2020. onds left. Both teams missed For this week's program for on three-point attempts down e Starkville Rotary Club on the stretch to send the contest Monday, Herrington and her into an extra session. sistant director Cate Van
The low-scoring overtime alsema both spoke to the period began with Nurhussien ub about what Starkville and Butler trading baskets rong does in the commuwithin the first 30 seconds ty in addressing its needs. to create a fifth deadlock in When she stepped up to the game. Following a nearly e podium, Herrington first 4-minute scoreless span by ared with the Rotarians both teams, Dylan Brumfield at she was glad to be in their hit on a driving layup and esence on Monday because then converted on two free assion drives us all.” throws to give the Wildcats “Whether it's in your pera 54-50 lead with 21 seconds left on the game clock. After Tremaine Dixon Jr.'s layup was goal-tended by Pearl River to cut the margin in half, Brumfield went back to the line with a chance to seal the win. He misfired on the front end of his one-and-one opportunity to give the Lions the evening, Butler still managed to score a game-high 18 points and pull down nine defensive rebounds for EMCC.
Looking to get back into the win column, the East Mississippi basketball teams will be back in action Monday against Coahoma. Head
y p life, if you're not passionate, you can become complacent. So passion within myself, every single team member, volunteer, and everyone who is with us, that is what continues to drive us,” Herrington said.
In March of 2020, Starkville coach Billy Begley's EMCC Lions (15-3, 6-2 MACCC) will host the Tigers in Scooba, and head coach Isaiah Butler's EMCC Lady Lions (5-10, 3-5 MACCC) are set to travel to Clarksdale for women's action. Both contests are slated to tip off at 6 p.m.
g yJ Redd, geared towards helpin small businesses going throug the trials and tribulations of th pandemic.
Two months later, the o ganization's Facebook grou grew to around 6,000 mem bers to the point where Red could not successfully mana Starkville Strong. Luckily, h knew someone who was ab to do such.
“If you know Jimm Redd, you know that he h about 10 different jobs and couple extra side hustles o top of that. So he offered to me, and I am glad eve day that I said yes,” said He rington. “Whenever I took over, we changed the missio The mission went from help