EMCC Lions claim fourth straight win with 76-75 victory at Southwest Mississippi

SUMMIT — The Lions of East Mississippi Community College claimed their fourth straight win by posting a 76-75 road victory over Southwest Mississippi during Saturday's MACCC inter-divisional men's basketball action.

The narrow one-point road win avenged EMCC's 90-83 overtime home loss to the Bears three weeks ago (Feb. 6) in Scooba.  All but one of the Lions' 10 games this season have now been decided by seven points or less, including seven contests that have been decided by three points or less.

Saturday's rematch in Summit saw the Lions take a 19-15 lead on Blake Butler's 3-pointer midway through the opening half.  The home-standing Bears countered with seven unanswered points that would put them in the lead for the remainder of the half.

After Southwest upped its lead to seven points (38-31) on Mazae Blake's trey to open the second-half scoring, the visitors went on a 9-2 run to knot the score at 40-40.  Following four more deadlocks over the next six minutes, Makeem Roberts' 3-pointer helped fuel an 18-10 spurt that gave the Lions a 68-60 lead with 3:27 remaining in the game.

EMCC still maintained a seven-point advantage (71-64) with a minute left in the contest.  However, Southwest's Tada Stricklen made things very interesting down the stretch with a trio of made treys over the game's final 43 seconds, including one coming at the final buzzer to account for the one-point margin.

EMCC freshman Nick Walker recorded his third double-double of the season by scoring a season-high 25 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field and 8-of-8 from the charity stripe in addition to matching his season best with 11 rebounds.  The Hattiesburg product also blocked four shots as an inside force on offense as well as on the defensive end for the Lions.  The Louisville, Kentucky tandem of Hunter McCutcheon and Butler followed with 14 and 11 points, respectively.  Roberts, from Meridian, added a season-high 10 points off the bench for the winners.

Southwest Mississippi also placed four scorers in double figures, as Stricklen and Javius Moore led the way with 17 points apiece.  Blake and Mykayle Carter followed with 14 and 11 points, respectively, for the Bears.

Set to play their third game in five days, Coach Billy Begley's 7-3 EMCC Lions (5-2 in division play) are scheduled to resume MACCC North Division play with a Monday evening road contest against the division-leading Northeast Mississippi Tigers.  Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. at Bonner Arnold Coliseum in Booneville.