Lions fall 80-74 at Southwest Mississippi for first conference loss

The Lady Lions of East Mississippi Community College claimed their first conference win of the season with a 54-46 home victory over Southwest Mississippi, while the EMCC men fell for the first time in league play by dropping an 80-74 road decision to the SMCC Bears, during Monday's MACCC basketball action.

In the men's game contested in Summit, the visiting Lions initially weathered a game-opening, three-point barrage by the Bears. After trailing, 9-0, EMCC bounced back to take a trio of four-point leads later in the opening half that featured six lead changes before Southwest reclaimed a slight 32-30 edge at the break.

Following intermission, the Lions knotted the game twice and then took a brief 38-36 lead on Jacob Reese's put-back basket. The Bears responded with nine unanswered points on a pair of made three-pointers plus a three-point play to take a 45-38 lead by the 13:18 mark of the second stanza.

The visitors battled from behind the rest of the evening, making it a one-possession game a handful of times over the final 13 minutes of action. The closest the Lions would get from that point forward was two points following a Blake Butler three-pointer at the 12:12 mark (45-43) and then again at the 6:38 mark (57-55) after three Butler free throws.

After Southwest extended its lead to eight points later in the half, EMCC's Kevin Henry hit two free throws to pull the visitors to within three points (67-64) with 2:34 remaining in the game. The Bears once again responded with a made three-pointer – their 15^th of the contest – to continue keeping the Lions at bay.

As Butler kept EMCC close down the stretch with a pair of made treys over the game's final 15 seconds, Southwest sealed the victory with clutch 8-of-8 free throw shooting over the last 34.3 seconds of the contest.

Butler scored 24 of his game-high 29 points during the second half. His six three-pointers in the game highlighted his 14^th career outing with 20 or more points scored. Ashten Michael and Henry followed with 11 and 10 points, respectively, for the Lions.

With four different Southwest players making three or more three-pointers in the contest, Joe Holloway led the Bears with 18 points (3-3 treys). Also scoring in double figures for SMCC were Javius Moore (3-12 treys), Deon Brown (5-7 treys), and Jahshawne Joseph (3-5 treys) with 16, 15, and 13 points, respectively. 

In women's action played at Keyes T. Currie Coliseum in Scooba, the home-standing Lady Lions held the advantage for most of the opening 20 minutes of play after jumping out to an early 10-3 lead over Southwest. After EMCC owned a 14-9 lead following the first quarter, the Lady Bears outscored the home team, 12-6, during a low-scoring second quarter to take their first lead (21-20) of the game at the halftime break.

Southwest then opened the second half with a 6-2 spurt to take a 27-22 lead by the 7:25 mark. With the visitors still leading (34-30) late in the third quarter, EMCC's Kennedi Jimison scored the last two baskets of the period to knot things up at 34-34 heading into the final 10 minutes of play.

With her pair of three-pointers and two free throws during the opening two minutes of the fourth quarter, Jimison continued her hot hand by sparking an 11-1 run that gave the Lady Lions an eight-point lead (45-37) by the 6:35 mark.

The Lady Lions maintained at least a five-point margin for the remainder of the contest, with their final nine points of the night all coming from the free throw line. Meanwhile, the Lady Bears continued to struggle offensively as they began to settle for perimeter shot attempts because of EMCC's stifling defense. Southwest did manage to cut the deficit to five points (51-46) one final time on a Mookie Lampley bucket, but Gabby Collier sealed the contest by hitting 3-of-4 charity tosses over the game's final 27.3 seconds.

Jimison, out of Northeast Lauderdale High School, scored 14 of her season-high 16 points in the second half to lead all scorers in the contest. Sadie Williams followed with a season-best 12 points to help halt the Lady Lions' three-game slide.

Veronica Williams was Southwest's lone double-digit scorer with 11 points.

The East Mississippi basketball teams will continue MACCC action with Thursday (Jan. 12) contests against Copiah-Lincoln. Head coach Billy Begley's EMCC Lions (10-2, 1-1 MACCC) are set to play host to the Wolves on the Scooba campus, while head coach Isaiah Butler's Lady Lions (3-6, 1-1 MACCC) will take on the Co-Lin women in Wesson. Both games are scheduled for 6 p.m. tip-offs.