Lions drop first division game in a year by falling 96-53 to hot-shooting Northeast

BOONEVILLE – The EMCC Lions fell victim to a 41-point explosion by DeAnthony Tipler in dropping a 96-53 road decision to the hot-shooting Tigers of Northeast Mississippi during Monday's MACJC North Division men's basketball action played at Bonner Arnold Coliseum.  In women's action, EMCC's Lady Lions completed the first rotation of regular-season division play in unbeaten fashion by holding on for a narrow 61-60 road victory over the Lady Tigers.   

The nightcap featured a pair of teams currently receiving votes in this week's NJCAA's Division I men's basketball poll.  The Northeast Tigers entered the contest coming off their first setback of the season last Thursday at Mississippi Delta, while the visiting EMCC Lions were riding a streak of 11 consecutive wins in MACJC North Division regular-season play dating back to last year's MACJC conference championship season.

The competitive opening half of play saw the home-standing Tigers open up an 11-point advantage (30-19) on a Tipler 3-pointer with five minutes remaining in the half.  Capped by Danny Washington's three-point play during the final seconds of the half, EMCC answered by going on an 11-4 run heading into halftime trailing by only four points (34-30).

With the Lions down by five points (39-34) two minutes into the second stanza, Northeast started to pull away by scoring nine unanswered points to extend the lead to 48-34.  With the Tigers shooting 63 percent from the field (22-35 FGs), including 10-of-14 (71%) from three-point range, during the second half, the margin grew to 20 points (57-37) with 12 minutes still remaining in the game.

EMCC's deficit continued to balloon from there, as the Lions struggled with 18 percent (6-33 FGs) second-half shooting and failed to connect on all 13 shot attempts from beyond the arc after halftime.

In dropping their first MACJC North Division regular-season decision since losing at home to Northeast Mississippi one year ago, Coach Billy Begley's EMCC Lions fell to 12-5 overall and 5-1 in division play this season.  Washington and reserve guard Romeo Sanders led the way with 10 points apiece for the visitors.  Freshman forward Jakorie Smith added nine points and nine rebounds.

Nationally ranked for most of the year until last week's loss at Mississippi Delta, the Northeast Tigers improved to 16-1 overall and 5-1 within the division.  Tipler's 41 points came on 14-of-20 shooting from the field, 6-of-8 accuracy from beyond the three-point arc and a perfect 7-of-7 from the charity stripe.  The sophomore guard from Ashland also collected six rebounds, six assists and three steals.  Jalen Perkins and Braxton Pritchard added 12 and 11 points, respectively, in the winning effort.

In women's action, EMCC initially broke open a tight contest by scoring the first 11 points of the second quarter to take a double-digit lead.  The Lady Lions' effective full-court press turned Northeast over a few times during the run to create some quick baskets, while Taylor Lattimore's 3-pointer capped the 11-0 spurt that gave EMCC a 27-15 lead early in the quarter.  The margin stayed at double figures (33-23) heading into halftime, as the visitors hit 58 percent of their shots from the field (15-26 FGs) and held Northeast to 39 percent shooting (11-28 FGs) through the opening 20 minutes.

The home-standing Lady Tigers flipped those shooting percentages in the second half of play to take the game down to the wire.  They outscored EMCC, 18-13, in the third quarter and used a 9-3 run during the final three minutes to cut the deficit to five points (46-41) entering the fourth quarter.

With the margin still at five points (52-47) three minutes into the final quarter, Northeast scored six unanswered points to take its first lead (53-52) since early in the contest on Da'Sha McGloster's pull-up jumper with 5:19 remaining in the game.  Following a Ja'Mia Hollings free throw that tied the game, Topazia Hawkins' coast-to-coast basket and Maddie Riley's inside bucket put the Lady Lions on top by four points (57-53).

The Lady Tigers remained resilient and continued to trade scores with EMCC down the stretch.  Chancey Jackson's basket was answered by another Riley bucket down low to keep the margin at four points (59-55) with 2:21 left.  After Northeast's Tekeria Newson capped her 24-point evening with a turnaround jumper in the lane with 44 seconds left, EMCC's Tye Metcalf just beat the shot clock buzzer with a pull-up jumper with 15 seconds remaining on the game clock to again make it a four-point game (61-57).  Quitonya Webster's 3-pointer with 2.6 ticks left made things quite interesting during the game's final moments, but EMCC was able to successfully inbound the ball to run out the clock and preserve the one-point road victory.

With their 10^th consecutive win of the year, Coach Sharon Thompson's 15-2, 6-0 EMCC Lady Lions were again powered by Hollings with her team-high 19 points.  The two-time MACJC Player of the Week hit 9-of-10 shots from the field.  Metcalf and Riley followed with 12 and 11 points, respectively, for the winners.

Despite hitting 59 percent (16-27 FGs) of their second-half shots, the Lady Tigers fell to 3-13 overall and 1-5 in division play.  Newson made 11-of-15 shots from the field to lead all scorers with 24 points on the night.  Webster added eight points and nine assists for Northeast.

The East Mississippi basketball teams return home to play host to the Trojans of Mississippi Delta during Thursday's hoops doubleheader on the Scooba campus.  A 5:30 p.m. women's game will be followed by a 7:30 p.m. men's contest at EMCC's Keyes T. Currie Coliseum.