East Mississippi trio garners All-Region 23 basketball honors

SCOOBA – East Mississippi Community College standouts Tye Metcalf, Ja'Mia Hollings and Jakorie Smith have earned All-Region 23 basketball team honors for their efforts during the 2019-20 season.  The respective 10-member, all-region teams were announced Wednesday following a vote of the head men's and women's junior college basketball coaches in the states of Mississippi and Louisiana.

Metcalf and Hollings helped lead Coach Sharon Thompson's 24-3 EMCC Lady Lions to the school's first MACJC women's basketball championship since the 1983-84 season, while Smith ranked as Coach Billy Begley's leading scorer and rebounder on the Lions' 16-9 team this past season.  All three players also previously garnered 2019-20 All-MACJC/North Division First Team accolades.

Metcalf, a two-time, all-conference backcourt performer for the Lady Lions, was the team's second-leading scorer at 13.2 points per game and top playmaker with 4.0 assists an outing.  In addition to also averaging 3.0 rebounds and 2.0 steals per contest for the season, she connected on 42.3 percent of her overall field goal attempts, 32.2 percent of her three-point tries and 70.4 percent from the charity stripe.

A Southaven native, Metcalf capped her two-year EMCC career by collecting MACJC Player of the Week honors after averaging a team-best 18.7 points along with 6.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists during the Lady Lions' three-game MACJC tournament championship run.  She was also selected to this year's NJCAA Region 23 All-Tournament Team.

For her EMCC career as a two-year starter for the Lady Lions, Metcalf totaled 679 points (13.6 ppg), 179 assists (3.6 apg), 156 rebounds (3.1 rpg) and 96 steals (1.9 spg).  

Hollings, a freshman forward, averaged a double-double for the 2019-20 season as EMCC's leading scorer (14.0 ppg) and top rebounder (10.2 rpg).  The West Point product recorded 15 double-double outings on the year with season-high efforts of 27 points coming against Coahoma CC and 17 rebounds during the Lady Lions' thrilling 87-73 double-overtime victory over 10^th-ranked Jones College in the championship game of the MACJC Basketball Tournament played in Scooba.

Along with also leading the Lady Lions in steals (61) and blocked shots (26) as a freshman, Hollings shot a team-best 60.9 percent from the field, including 71.2 percent during MACJC North Division regular-season play, and 70.7 percent from the free throw line.  The 6-foot-1 frontcourt player was named MACJC Player of the Week on two occasions this past year.

On the men's side, EMCC's Smith averaged a team-leading 15.2 points and club-best 8.4 rebounds per game for the season as a two-time MACJC Player of the Week selection.  The 6-foot-6, 220-pound freshman forward additionally shot 49.1 percent from the field overall, 35.6 percent from beyond the three-point arc and 73.6 percent from the charity stripe on the year.

With eight double-doubles this past season for the Lions, Smith's season-high efforts were 29 points scored at Meridian CC and 15 rebounds collected against LSU Eunice during the Pearl River-hosted Wildcat Classic.

A native of Utica, Smith was previously a Clarion Ledger Dandy Dozen prep selection as a member of three Class 4A state championship teams at Raymond High School.