East Mississippi opens division hoops play by splitting at home against Northeast Mississippi

SCOOBA – The East Mississippi Community College basketball teams opened MACJC North Division play by splitting with visiting Northeast Mississippi Community College Thursday evening at Keyes T. Currie Coliseum.  The Lady Lions opened the night with a hard-fought 59-49 victory by pulling away late in the women's contest, while the previously unbeaten EMCC men couldn't quite pull off late-game heroics in dropping a tough 70-68 decision to the Tigers.      

In the opener, the home-standing Lady Lions took a slim 25-22 halftime advantage following a low-scoring first quarter that featured only 19 total points scored.  After the visitors reclaimed the lead late in the third quarter, the two teams battled to five ties into the early portion of the closing period.

Camry Jones' baseline drive knotted the score at 42-all and her subsequent pair of free throws gave the EMCC women the lead (44-42) for good with 3:27 left in the contest.  Chenya Sealey capped an otherwise cold-shooting night with two clutch 3-pointers to stretch the Lady Lions' advantage to a half-dozen points (50-44) with two minutes remaining.

After Northeast pulled to within four points on a couple of occasions late in the contest, EMCC sophomore Ki-Ki Patterson made eight free throws over the final 33 seconds to enable the Lady Lions to pull away with the 10-point victory.

With their sixth straight series win over Northeast, head coach Sharon Thompson's EMCC Lady Lions improved to 6-1 on the year heading into the upcoming Christmas holiday break.  Patterson, a former prep All-American at Columbus High School, tallied 16 of her season-high 23 points after halftime to lead all scorers.  Jones followed with a dozen points for the winners.

Falling to 3-4 on the season, the Northeast Lady Tigers were paced by the double-double effort of 13 points and 15 rebounds by Shelby Wilbanks.

During the intense nightcap, the EMCC men trailed the entire contest before falling just short in their valiant comeback attempt during the game's final seconds.  Early three-point success by Northeast gave the Tigers a 21-6 lead midway through the opening half.  The visitors continued to maintain a double-digit lead (33-23) at the halftime intermission.

Nat Dixon's 14-point, second-half effort gave the Lions a much-needed spark following the break.  His scoring contributions helped enable EMCC to get back into the contest with a chance to pull out the victory during the waning seconds.

With the home team trailing by a bucket (68-66) heading into the final minute of play, the two teams then exchanged costly turnovers.  Two free throws by Northeast's Leroy Buchanan with 23.5 seconds left put the Tigers on top, 70-66.  EMCC's Jahyde Gardiner smartly pump-faked and drove to the basket for a quick score to cut the deficit in half with 16.9 ticks remaining in regulation.

Following a timeout by EMCC, the Lions succeeded in forcing a turnover in the backcourt to set up a wild ending.  Gardiner did not connect on an initial three-point attempt from the corner.  Wesley Harris' scrambling rebound effort was intercepted by EMCC's J'Vaughnte Harris, who also misfired from three-point range as the final buzzer sounded.

Dixon, a transfer from Boston College, led East Mississippi with 17 points.  Sophomore Daniel Simmons registered his third career double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Improving to 5-3 with the victory, the Northeast Tigers received a game-high 19 points from Harris.

Coach Billy Begley's 7-1 EMCC Lions will close out their pre-holiday hoops schedule by playing host to William Carey University's junior varsity team Tuesday evening (6 p.m.) on the Scooba campus.