EMCC women breeze to 61-37 road win over Delta; Lions fall to Trojans 78-72 in men’s nightcap

MOORHEAD – Tyeisha Juhan and Quantesha Patterson combined for 49 points to help lead the East Mississippi Community College women's basketball team to a convincing 61-37 road win over Mississippi Delta Community College during Thursday's MACJC North Division action.  In the men's nightcap, EMCC's possible postseason tournament chances took another hit with a 78-72 setback to the Trojans at J.T. Hall Coliseum.

After leading, 13-4, following a low-scoring opening quarter, the EMCC women continued to dominate the contest the rest of the way. Their 29-19 halftime advantage grew to a 47-29 cushion following three quarters of play on the way to the 24-point final margin.

EMCC's Juhan and Patterson, the MACJC's top two leading scorers on the year, finished the game with 26 and 23 points, respectively, to power Coach Sharon Thompson's 12-7, 7-3 EMCC Lions.  Juhan, a freshman from Jonesboro, Georgia, added six rebounds, three assists and three steals.  Patterson, a reigning all-region performer, shot 8-of-12 from the field and 7-of-10 from the line while also pulling down nine rebounds and collecting three blocked shots and two steals.

For the game, the visitors shot 51 percent (23-45 FGs) from the field and made 14-of-20 (70%) charity tosses as a team.

Dropping to 2-17 overall and 1-9 within the division, the Lady Trojans were led by Alexis Augustus' 17 points.

During the men's nightcap, the home-standing Trojans controlled the contest for the most part in maintaining a double-digit advantage for the majority of the second stanza.  Delta increased its 38-28 halftime lead to 18 points (48-30) early in the second half.

The Lions managed to cut the deficit to eight points on two occasions before making a furious comeback attempt with a couple of minutes remaining in the game.  Seemingly down for the count while trailing by 15 points (74-59), EMCC connected on three straight 3-pointers to pull within four points (74-70) with 26.5 seconds left.  But that's as close as the visitors would get with the Trojans securing the six-point victory at the charity stripe down the stretch.

Falling to 7-12 overall and 3-7 in division play, Coach Billy Begley's EMCC Lions had five players score in double figures.  Sophomore David McFarland once again led the way with 19 points, while Josh Skinner followed with 15 points.             

With four players scoring in double digits, the Delta men improved to 10-11 overall and 5-5 within the division.  Jabarie Escoffery and Xavier Appleberry paced the Trojans with 22 and 18 points, respectively.

The East Mississippi basketball teams will close out the regular season next week by traveling to Fulton for a Monday doubleheader against the Itawamba Indians and then playing host to the Holmes Bulldogs in a Thursday twin bill on the Scooba campus.