Reigning state hoops champion EMCC send five players to four-year university level

SCOOBA – Five members of East Mississippi Community College's MACJC state championship men's basketball team from this past season have signed National Letters of Intent to further their education and continue their collegiate basketball careers at the four-year university level.

EMCC's all-region and first-team all-state selection Terryonte Thomas, out of New Hope High School, has signed with Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, while fellow MACJC all-state guards Dewayne Cox and Robert Davis Jr. have inked with Prairie View A&M University in Texas and NCAA Division II member Columbus State University in Georgia, respectively.  In addition, the Starkville tandem of Darrious Agnew and Markedric Bell will be attending Southeast Missouri State University and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, respectively.   

Thomas totaled 655 career points (13.1 ppg), 258 rebounds (5.2 rpg) and 108 assists (2.2 apg) as a two-year starter for head coach Billy Begley's EMCC Lions.  This past season, the 6-foot-4, 205-pound Thomas was the team's leading scorer with 13.7 points per game while also averaging 4.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists an outing.  The Columbus native will join head coach Jason Hooten's Sam Houston State club on the heels of the 21-12 Bearkats claiming the Southland Conference regular-season championship this past year.

Cox will also be joining a hoops program coming off one its best seasons in school history, as head coach Byron Smith's 22-13 Prairie View A&M Panthers won both the regular season and postseason tournament championships of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) a season ago.  The Ripley product amassed 591 career points (11.6 ppg), 244 rebounds (4.8 rpg), 103 steals (2.0 spg) and 89 assists (1.7 apg) during his two seasons on the Scooba campus.  Cox, a 6-foot-1, 165-pound guard, was EMCC's second-leading scorer this past year at 12.9 points per game and connected on 86.3 percent (132-of-153) of his charity tosses.

Davis enjoyed a breakout sophomore season with the Lions by ranking as EMCC's third-best scorer 12.4 ppg) and top playmaker with 54 assists.  The 6-foot-2, 195-pound combo guard also posted team-high shooting accuracy marks of 46 percent from beyond the three-point arc and 87 percent from the free throw line.  The Clinton native will join a Columbus State Cougars team, coached by Robert Moore, which will return three double-digit scorers from this past season.

Agnew helped spark the 19-8 EMCC Lions to their first MACJC state men's basketball championship since the 1930s.  The 6-foot-8, 225-pound forward averaged 15.6 points and 7.0 rebounds during the three games of last year's state tournament.  For the season, Agnew averaged 11.5 points and a team-leading 6.7 rebounds per contest while shooting 51.3 percent from the field.  He becomes the latest EMCC men's basketball player to join the Southeast Missouri Redhawks program by following in the footsteps of former Lion standouts Daniel Simmons and Jarekious Bradley.                      

Bell, a fellow Starkville product, was EMCC's second-leading rebounder (6.3 rpg) in addition to averaging 6.6 points per game this past season as a 22-game sophomore starter.  The 6-foot-7, 190-pound forward totaled 316 career points (6.3 rpg), 306 rebounds (6.1 rpg) and 68 blocked shots during his 50-game East Mississippi career.  As a future member of head coach George Ivory's UAPB Golden Lions, Bell will join Prairie View-bound Cox as former EMCC Lions to compete in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) next season.