EMCC women bested by 11th-ranked Jones 81-49 in Ellisville

The East Mississippi Community College women's basketball team ran into a buzz saw during Monday's MACCC action by dropping an 81-49 road decision to the 11th-ranked Jones College Bobcats at A.B. Howard Coliseum.

In men's action on the Scooba campus, the EMCC Lions avenged last month's 58-49 road loss at Jones by earning a narrow 77-76 home victory over the Bobcats at Keyes T. Currie Coliseum.

On the women's side in Ellisville, home-standing Jones jumped out to an early 15-4 lead, but the Lady Lions responded with eight unanswered points to cut the deficit to three points by the 2:21 mark of the opening half. After EMCC further cut the JC lead to 18-16 early in the second quarter, the Bobcats scored 21 unanswered points en route to outscoring the visitors, 21-6, during the period and extending their advantage to 39-18 by halftime.

To their credit following the break, the Lady Lions climbed out of a 54-29 hole to outscore Jones, 15-4, over the final 4:20 of the third quarter to enter the fourth quarter trailing by 14 points (58-44).

The final 10 minutes belonged to Jones, however, as the conference-leading Bobcats used a 23-5 quarter to pull away with the 32-point home victory.

Kennedi Jimison led EMCC with 14 points, while Sukkima Suell recorded her second straight double-double with 10 points and a career-high 11 rebounds. Freshman Hannah McDougle added a season-high 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field along with grabbing six boards.

Jones College's Sakyia White, a Florida State signee, registered her 15^th double-double of the season with 18 points and 13 rebounds. En'Dya Buford topped all game scorers with 23 points for the Bobcats.

In the men's rematch of the Dec. 8 meeting in Ellisville when Jones claimed a 58-49 home win to snap EMCC's season-opening, eight-game win streak, the Bobcats again held the early advantage in Scooba. Their nine unanswered points put the visitors on top by double digits (20-9) midway through the opening half.

After Jones extended its lead to a dozen points (29-17) at the 6:22 mark on Jay Barnes' third three-pointer of the game, the Lions were able to reduce the margin to just four points (30-26) late in the half before settling for a 34-27 halftime deficit.

Following halftime, EMCC came out of the locker room with a purpose and promptly scored the first eight points of the second stanza. Four points each by Blake Butler and DJ Avery, including the latter's energizing alley-oop slam off a feed from point guard Tremaine Dixon Jr., helped ignite the Lions' second-half momentum.

The next six minutes featured six lead changes before back-to-back made treys by Andrew Mason and Butler put the Lions up front to stay. After the Bobcats reclaimed the lead at 49-45 with 13:12 remaining, EMCC went on a 25-9 run over the next nine minutes to match Jones' previous 12-point lead by the 4:22 mark.

Jones managed to stay in the contest the rest of the way by virtue of the three-point shot. Consecutive triples by Samarion Grant and Zandon Haralson made it a three-point contest (74-71) with 1:22 remaining. Following a timeout, Grant's potential game-tying trey misfired as the shot clock ran down. After Dixon split a pair of free throws to give the Lions a four-point lead with 11.7 ticks left, the teams then traded charity tosses to make Haralson's buzzer-beating three-pointer at the final horn inconsequential.

EMCC's balanced scoring attack featured five players in double figures. Butler led the way with 17 points, including 13 in the second half on 5-of-5 shooting from the field. The Louisville, Kentucky product also had a team-high nine rebounds. Mason and Dixon followed with 15 and 14 points, respectively. Kevin Henry and Avery added 13 and 12 points, respectively, with all of their combined 25 points coming after halftime.

For the visitors, Barnes' game-high 28 points and Caleb McGill's 21 points accounted for 49 of the Bobcats' 76 total points in the contest.

East Mississippi is slated to take on Mississippi Delta on Thursday (Jan. 26) in MACCC basketball action. Head coach Isaiah Butler's EMCC Lady Lions (4-8, 2-3 MACCC) will play host to the Lady Trojans on the Scooba campus, while head coach Billy Begley's EMCC Lions (13-2, 4-1 MACCC) will travel to Moorhead for the men's contest. Both games are scheduled for 6 p.m. tip-offs.