EMCC successfully tips off division hoops slate with pair of road wins over Northeast Mississippi

BOONEVILLE – The East Mississippi Community College basketball teams successfully tipped off MACJC North Division play with a road doubleheader sweep over Northeast Mississippi Community College Thursday evening at Bonner Arnold Coliseum.  The reigning division champion Lady Lions held on for a 68-64 win in the opener, while the Lions completed the night's sweep for the visitors with a 68-58 victory over the Tigers.

To begin the evening, the EMCC women scored 13 unanswered points midway through the opening half to push out to a double-digit advantage by the 7:20 mark.  After maintaining an 11-point lead (37-26) at the intermission, the Lady Lions looked to be comfortably ahead by 19 points (50-31) five minutes into the second stanza.

However, the home-standing Lady Tigers outscored the visitors, 17-6, over the next six minutes to cut the deficit to single digits (56-48).  Later in the half, Northeast went on an 8-1 run to shave an 11-point deficit to just four points (62-58) following a three-point play by Aushiana Ivy with 2:30 remaining.  But, that's as close as NEMCC would get, as the Lady Lions managed to secure their fourth straight series win over Northeast.

Coach Sharon Thompson's 4-4 EMCC Lady Lions were led by Ki-Ki Patterson's game-high 20 points for the former Columbus standout's fourth 20-point outing of the young season.  Annessia Durham and Shannon DeFoe followed with personal season-high totals of 15 and 13 points, respectively, for the winners.

Dropping to 3-4 overall in their division opener, the Northeast women received 15 points from Ivy.  LaKeiya Lane and Harper Newell added 12 and 11 points, respectively.

The Lions led from start to finish in the nightcap, mounting a 39-24 advantage by halftime.  The cushion expanded to 19 points (47-28) early in the second half, before Northeast tallied nine unanswered points to make it 47-37 five minutes into the closing period.

After losing their double-digit margin briefly, the visitors built the lead back up to 14 points (59-45) with 7:30 remaining in the game.  Northeast then ran off seven straight points to make things interesting down the stretch.  However, a clutch corner 3-pointer from sophomore guard Antonio Finley bumped EMCC's lead back up to eight points (64-56) with a little over a minute left in the contest.

Coach Mark White's EMCC Lions finished out the game to improve to 4-1 overall on the year with their 10^th consecutive series win over Northeast spanning back to the 2009-10 hoops campaign.  After scoring 13 first-half points, Starkville's Dontavius Self paced the winners with a season-best 15 points.  Freshman forward Jahyde Gardiner recorded his third double-double of the year with 13 points and 14 rebounds.  Meridian's Finley added a dozen points in the winning effort.

Falling to 4-4 overall on the year, the Northeast Tigers were led by Dimario Jackson and Raheem Sorrell with 14 points apiece.

The East Mississippi basketball teams next step out of conference play to take on Delgado Community College in a Monday doubleheader from New Orleans.