EMCC Lions fall to Holmes in NJCAA Region 23 men’s tourney play to close out hoops slate

SCOOBA – East Mississippi Community College's men's basketball season concluded with an 81-68 home setback to Holmes during Monday's NJCAA Region 23 Tournament quarterfinal-round action played at EMCC's Keyes T. Currie Coliseum.

With the fourth-seeded EMCC Lions having received an opening-round bye and No. 5 seed Holmes advancing with Saturday's 81-69 home win over East Central, the teams traded significant runs to close out the opening half after the visitors held a narrow 16-15 lead eight minutes into the contest.

After Andrew Mason's three-point play pulled EMCC to within a point at the 11:58 mark, Holmes answered with consecutive made three-pointers by Jamar Jenkins and Dacory Porter that sparked an 18-6 run to give the Bulldogs a 34-21 advantage.

The Lions then responded with a 16-7 spurt of their own over the half's final five minutes to trim the deficit to four points (41-37) by the halftime break. Mason led EMCC with 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field during the opening 20 minutes of play.

The Lions kept the margin to within single digits for the opening portion of the second stanza, but they could only manage to get as close as four points the rest of the way. Following a Sayerr Senghore basket that made it a 54-50 contest, the Bulldogs then used a 16-4 surge to extend their lead to 16 points (70-54) by the 6:55 mark.

To their credit, the Lions continued to battle down the stretch and trimmed the margin to seven points (74-67) with a 5-0 spurt that was capped by Nick Walker's put-back basket with 3:23 remaining in the contest.

With all five starters scoring in double figures, Holmes sealed its 13-point victory with effective use of the game clock over the final three minutes of play and by limiting EMCC to just a single point during that span.

EMCC's Mason led all scorers with 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field in addition to grabbing a career-high nine rebounds. Walker followed with 15 points by hitting all seven shot attempts along with adding seven boards. Hunter McCutcheon and Senghore contributed 12 and 11 points, respectively, for the Lions.

Improving to 23-8 overall on the season and advancing to Thursday's regional semifinals against Jones College, Holmes' balanced scoring attack was led by Jenkins and Cameron Wallace with 19 and 18 points, respectively. Wallace added a game-high dozen rebounds for a solid double-double effort. Hobert Grayson followed close behind with 17 points, while Porter and Jalen Tatum added 14 and 11 points, respectively, for the Bulldogs.

Having earned a third straight No. 4 seed in NJCAA Region 23 Tournament play, head coach Billy Begley's EMCC Lions finished the 2023-24 season with a 16-14 overall record and 9-5 MACCC mark after closing out the regular-season slate with seven wins in their last nine conference games.