EMCC Lady Lions advance to MACCC tourney semifinals with 61-54 win over Southwest
The seventh-seeded Lady Lions of East Mississippi Community College began defense of their MACCC Women’s Basketball Tournament Championship from two seasons ago by posting a 61-54 win over No. 2 seed Southwest Mississippi during Monday’s quarterfinal-round action of this year’s MACCC Basketball Tournament being played this week at the Marvin R. White Coliseum on the campus of Pearl River Community College.
POPLARVILLE — The seventh-seeded Lady Lions of East Mississippi Community College began defense of their MACCC Women's Basketball Tournament Championship from two seasons ago by posting a 61-54 win over No. 2 seed Southwest Mississippi during Monday's quarterfinal-round action of this year's MACCC Basketball Tournament being played this week at the Marvin R. White Coliseum on the campus of Pearl River Community College.
In advancing to Wednesday's tournament semifinals, EMCC's 12-11 Lady Lions move on to meet Coahoma looking to avenge a pair of regular-season losses to the Lady Tigers (65-50 in Clarksdale and 72-58 in Scooba). Coahoma bested Itawamba, 68-56, on Monday to set up the 1 p.m. EMCC-CCC matchup in Wednesday's semifinals.
Coahoma was declared an MACCC regular-season women's basketball co-champion last season after conference scheduling adjustments were made during the course of the coronavirus pandemic that did not allow for a postseason conference tournament to be played a year ago. Two seasons ago, head coach Sharon Thompson's EMCC Lady Lions capped a 19-game winning streak by knocking off then-No. 10 Jones College, 87-73 in double overtime, during the championship game played in Scooba to give East Mississippi the school's first women's basketball championship since the 1983-84 season.
In defense of their 2020 conference tournament women's title, the Lady Lions came out sluggish in their 2022 tourney opener by falling behind, 8-0, to Southwest. EMCC then began to step up its defensive intensity the rest of the opening quarter and managed to knot the score at 8-8 on Ciara Jackson's buzzer-beating three-pointer at the end of the first 10 minutes of play.
The second quarter saw five lead changes before the Lady Lions went on a 9-3 run during the final three minutes of the half to take a 25-20 halftime advantage.
Following intermission, the EMCC women increased the lead to nine points (35-26) after a pair of DJ Williams free throws at the 5:38 mark. The Lady Bears responded with a 12-3 spurt to tie the game at 38-38 before Ciara Jackson's baseline jumper put the Lady Lions back on top by a basket heading into the final 10 minutes of action.
EMCC continued to maintain a slight edge on the scoreboard during the early stages of the fourth quarter until Southwest battled back to force two more ties and reclaim the lead on a couple of occasions.
After a put-back basket by Shylia McGee put the Lady Bears on top (49-47) with 3:17 remaining, EMCC's Siarra Jackson asserted herself in the paint down the stretch of a dominant second-half performance that put the Lady Lions in front for good heading into the game's final minute of play. The Ripley native produced three clutch baskets in the post during crunch time, including a left-handed spin move to the goal that gave EMCC a 53-49 lead with 49.3 seconds left.
From that point during the closing moments of the contest, Siarra Jackson and teammate Markiema Lancaster collectively nailed all eight free throw attempts between them over the game's final 36.7 seconds to seal the Lady Lions' fourth consecutive conference tournament victory.
Finishing the contest with a game-high 21 points, Siarra Jackson hit all four of her second-half field goal attempts and converted 7-of-8 free throws after halftime. All eight of her rebounds for the game also came after intermission in addition to her 15 second-half points.
Lancaster followed with 11 points, eight rebounds, four steals and two assists coming off the EMCC bench, while Ciara Jackson added a career-high 10 points for the winners. Also key for the Lady Lions in the victory were Kyunna Thomas with nine points, 10 rebounds, four steals and two assists, and Williams with eight points, eight assists and a pair of steals.
McGee led Southwest Mississippi with 14 points, while Lynn Griffin and Gabby Bunch followed with 10 points apiece.
In the other women's bracket from Monday's quarterfinals, Jones College topped Copiah-Lincoln, 70-63, and eighth-seeded Northwest Mississippi upset top seed and tournament host Pearl River, 70-68 in overtime, to produce a Jones-Northwest meeting in Wednesday's semifinals.