EMCC Lions upset No. 16 and top seed Pearl River to advance to MACCC championship game
The fourth-seeded Lions of East Mississippi Community College handed 16th-ranked and tournament host Pearl River its first loss in three months while advancing to their second championship game appearance in four years with a 57-51 upset win over the top-seeded Wildcats during Wednesday’s semifinals of this week’s MACCC Men’s Basketball Tournament being played at PRCC’s Marvin R. White Coliseum.
POPLARVILLE — The fourth-seeded Lions of East Mississippi Community College handed 16th-ranked and tournament host Pearl River its first loss in three months while advancing to their second championship game appearance in four years with a 57-51 upset win over the top-seeded Wildcats during Wednesday's semifinals of this week's MACCC Men's Basketball Tournament being played at PRCC's Marvin R. White Coliseum.
Featuring a hoops battle of the past two MACCC men's tournament champions - PRCC in 2020 & EMCC in 2019 - the Lions held the Wildcats to a season-low 51 points while snapping their 16-game winning streak and handing them just their third loss of the year and first since Nov. 22 (67-63 at Delgado). The 19-6 Lions will now bid for win No. 20 on the year by advancing to take on 23rd-ranked Northeast Mississippi in Thursday's MACCC men's title game. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. on the PRCC campus following the 5:30 p.m. women's conference championship contest between Jones College and Coahoma.
After EMCC's Blake Butler opened Wednesday's semifinal-round contest with a tip-in basket and three-pointer, five points was the largest margin of the opening half by either team. Pearl River later owned five-point leads of 17-12 and 18-13 around the midway point of the first half.
The second portion of the evenly contested first half of play featured five lead changes and a pair of deadlocks before the Lions went to the locker room with a narrow 31-29 halftime advantage.
Following intermission, the two teams opened the second stanza by exchanging leads six times before EMCC scored seven straight points to create some distance. A pair of Brandon Deravine baskets sandwiched a long Butler trey to give the Lions a 42-36 lead with 14:19 remaining in the contest.
A step-back triple by Butler at the 7:20 mark then lengthened the lead to nine points (51-42). EMCC's lead still stood at nine four minutes later when Butler's feed led to a Nick Walker dunk to put the Lions on top, 53-44, with 3:32 left in the game.
The Wildcats stayed in the hunt and managed to cut the deficit to four points (55-51) on Jariyon Wilkens' three-point play with 40 seconds remaining in regulation. PRCC had its chances down the stretch but couldn't capitalize on a late EMCC turnover and a missed one-and-one opportunity by the Lions at the charity stripe. Traemond Pittman's pair of free throws with 12 seconds left accounted for the final margin and helped avenge EMCC's 72-59 home loss to Pearl River back on Jan. 27.
Along with holding PRCC to its lowest scoring output of the season, head coach Billy Begley's EMCC Lions limited the Wildcats to just 27 percent (10-37 FGs) second-half shooting, including only 1-of-17 from three-point range. EMCC shot 41 percent (20-49 FGs) from the field for the game, while Pearl River managed to make just 32 percent (21-66 FGs) of its shot attempts during the contest.
Deravine led a trio of EMCC double-digit scorers with a game-high 15 points. Butler and Jakorie Smith followed with 14 and 13 points, respectively, for the winners.
Falling to 20-3 on the season after going unbeaten in 14 regular-season conference games, Pearl River was led by Jariyon Wilkens' double-double effort of 14 points and 11 rebounds as the team's lone scorer in double figures.