EMCC Lions bow out of MACJC State Basketball Tournament with 78-74 loss to Mississippi Gulf Coast

WESSON – The Lions of East Mississippi Community College couldn't maintain a 10-point, second-half advantage in dropping a 78-74 decision to Mississippi Gulf Coast during Tuesday's opening-round action of the MACJC State Basketball Tournament being played at Mullen Gymnasium on the campus of Copiah-Lincoln Community College.

After EMCC, seeded second in the MACJC's North Division, increased an eight-point halftime lead to 38-28 early in the second half, the third-seeded MGCCC Bulldogs of the South Division shot 53 percent (16-of-30 FGs) from the field in the second stanza to make up the deficit and ultimately hold on for the four-point victory.     

Led by Jahyde Gardiner's 12 first-half points, the Lions raced to an early 14-4 lead and mostly controlled the opening 20 minutes of action.  After the Bulldogs trimmed the margin to two points (28-26) on a put-back basket by Austinn Jones with 2:14 left until the break, EMCC scored eight of the final 10 points of the half to secure a 36-28 halftime advantage.

Following a floater by freshman Daniel Simmons coming out of intermission that pushed EMCC's lead to double digits, the Bulldogs used a 13-2 run to take their first lead (41-40) since the opening moments of the contest.  After two subsequent lead changes, Gulf Coast proceeded to take the lead for good on back-to-back 3-pointers by Jones and Anfernee Hampton midway through the second stanza.

Minus the team's leading scorer and top three-point shooter Antonio Finley, East Mississippi failed to connect from beyond the three-point arc until Simmons drained a trey with 9:05 remaining in the contest.  After that 3-pointer cut EMCC's deficit to a single point (55-54), the Bulldogs answered with six straight points to extend the margin back up to seven points (61-54) with 8:02 left.

Simmons, a freshman from Biggersville, again responded by drilling consecutive treys to pull the Lions back to within a point (61-60).  However, Gulf Coast again answered with a Micheal Lewis put-back bucket off a free throw miss and added a Justin Coleman 3-pointer to momentarily halt the EMCC rally.

It was Lewis who stood out during the game's final minutes, as the 6-foot-10 post player excited the crowd with an athletic alley-oop dunk off a pass from Deshawn Jones to make it 70-67 with 2:10 left in the game.  A basket by EMCC's Shelvick Henry Jr. was answered by Coleman's put-back slam to keep it a three-point contest (72-69) heading into the final minute of play.

Five free throws from freshman guard La'Datren Deas down the stretch kept the Lions in the hunt.  Down by two points during the game's waning moments, EMCC had multiple put-back attempts on the offensive glass but had to settle for the ball out of bounds underneath their own basket with just 8.1 seconds left on the game clock.  Deas' resulting shot attempt in the paint was blocked and rebounded by Lewis, who was fouled and sent to the line with 3.5 ticks remaining.  His pair of makes at the charity stripe sealed the victory for Gulf Coast.

Improving to 14-10 overall with the win, the Bulldogs advanced to meet rival Pearl River in Wednesday's semifinals.  From the MACJC's North Division, Tuesday winners Northeast Mississippi and Holmes are set for Wednesday's other semifinal-round men's matchup.  The men's and women's championship contests are slated for Thursday evening on the Co-Lin campus.       

Against EMCC, Gulf Coast was powered by Coleman's double-double performance with his game-high totals of 21 points and 16 rebounds.  Hampton and Jamarri Johnson followed with 19 and 13 points, respectively, for the winners.

Now 17-7 overall and awaiting their opening-round opponent in next week's NJCAA Region 23 Basketball Tournament in Clinton, head coach Mark White's EMCC Lions had four players reach double figures against MGCCC.  Aided by his 10-of-12 effort at the line, Deas led the way with 16 points.  Henry and Gardiner followed with 15 and 14 points, respectively, while Simmons added a dozen points for East Mississippi.   

Next week's NJCAA Region 23 Tournament will be played at A.E. Wood Coliseum on the Mississippi College campus in Clinton.  Men's action will begin Wednesday (March 4) with opening-round women's play set to tip off Thursday.  Friday's semifinal-round competition will be followed by men's and women's championship contests on Saturday.