EMCC teams begin NJCAA Region 23 Tournament action
SCOOBA — In securing No. 6 regional seeds with third-place MACCC North Division regular-season finishes, the East Mississippi Community College basketball teams are set to begin competition by hosting second-round games during this week’s NJCAA Region 23 Basketball Tournament action.
Following first-round byes, the EMCC women will play host to 11th-seeded Copiah-lincoln (5-8) today, while the EMCC men will entertain No. 11 seed Southwest Mississippi (6-8, 7-9 overall) on Thursday. Both second-round tournament contests are set to tip off at 6 p.m. at Keyes T. Currie Coliseum on the Scooba campus.
Coach Sharon Thompson’s reigning conference champion EMCC Lady Lions enter postseason tournament competition with a 10-4 record both overall and in division play. They have won six of their last seven decisions, including a four-game winning streak before dropping a 5150 home decision to MACCC North Division co-champion
Itawamba back on March 20. The Lady Lions closed out the regular season with a commanding 81-39 home triumph over Northwest Mississippi last Wednesday.
Coach Billy Begley’s EMCC Lions posted an 11-5 overall record and 9-4 division mark during regularseason play. They will begin regional action having won eight of their last 10 contests, including a pair of four-game win streaks. The Lions concluded the regular season by dropping a 73-62 home decision to Holmes on March 22.
Because of their divisiononly schedule, the EMCC women did not meet the Colin Lady Wolves during the 2021 regular season.
Along with playing their MACCC North Division slate, the Lions split a pair of inter-division February decisions with Southwest Mississippi and posted an 87-70 road win over Meridian. During their regular-season split with Southwest, the EMCC men avenged a 90-83 home overtime loss to the Bears by claiming a narrow 76-75 road win over SMCC three weeks later in Summit.
Following this
week’s opening rounds, tournament action will continue at oncampus sites of higher seeded teams with the Region 23 quarterfinals set for April 5-6 (women on Monday and men on Tuesday). The tournament semifinals (April 7-8) and championship contests (April 9) will then be played at Mississippi College in Clinton.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the MACCC is not playing its annual basketball conference tournaments this year. Instead, the MACCC North Division and MACCC South Division regular-season champions have been declared co-conference champions for 2021. In response to the pandemic, divisional winners were chosen using a formula consisting of 80% of a team’s winning percentage and 20% of a team’s total number of games played.
In women’s action, Coahoma and Itawamba shared the MACCC North Division title, while top-ranked Jones went undefeated in the MACCC South. In men’s play, Northeast Mississippi edged Holmes to claim the MACCC North crown, while ninth-ranked Pearl River won the MACCC South title.