EMCC's Lady Lions drop 61-49 home decision to Itawamba

East Mississippi Community College's basketball teams fell to Itawamba during Friday's MACCC men's and women's action played on the schools' respective campuses. The EMCC women dropped a 61-49 home decision to ICC, while the visiting Lions fell, 79-67, on the road to the Indians in a battle of second-place teams.

In women's action played at Keyes T. Currie Coliseum on the Scooba campus, the first half stayed within a five-point game the entire opening 20 minutes. After EMCC jumped out to an early 7-2 lead, the Lady Indians later used an 11-1 run to move ahead by nine points (32-23) early in the second half.

Six unanswered points by the Lady Lions, including consecutive baskets by Gabby Collier following steals, cut the deficit to a point (36-35). ICC responded by scoring the last seven points of the third quarter to take a 43-35 advantage into the final period.

EMCC couldn't get any closer than seven points the rest of the contest, as the visitors maintained a double-digit lead for the majority of the fourth quarter.

As the team's lone double-figure scorer in the contest, Collier tallied a game-high 17 points off the EMCC bench on 6-of-9 shooting from the field with a pair of made three-pointers. Kennedi Jimison followed with eight points for the Lady Lions.

With 10 players in the scoring column, the Itawamba women were led by Kimaya Dixon and Kenijha Flowers with 12 and 11 points, respectively.

In men's action contested at the Davis Event Center in Fulton, the home-standing ICC Indians grabbed an early 18-9 advantage seven minutes into the game.

Later in the opening half, a Blake Butler three-pointer and consecutive baskets by Christian Noel made up a 7-0 EMCC run that gave the Lions a four-point lead (28-24). The Indians then answered with an 8-2 spurt to close the half with a 34-32 edge.

Terrell Dixon's three-point play coming out of the halftime break briefly put the Lions back on top, 35-34. That would be EMCC's final lead of the contest, however, as ICC's Josh Lee and George Marshall answered promptly with back-to-back made treys to help regain control for the Indians.

With Lee and Marshall combining for 49 points in the contest, along with Rock Robinson's 14 second-half points, Itawamba maintained a comfortable advantage throughout the second half. The Lions managed to get within seven points (56-49) on Kevin Henry's reverse layup at the 7:00 mark, but Robinson's second of three made treys in the half bumped the margin back up to double figures.

EMCC's Butler led all game scorers with 30 points for his fifth career outing with 30 or more points.

Marshall and Lee paced the Indians with 28 and 21 points, respectively.

East Mississippi's basketball teams will begin the final week of the MACCC's regular season by taking on Meridian CC on Tuesday (Feb. 21). Head coach Billy Begley's EMCC Lions (17-5, 8-4 MACCC) will play host to the Eagles at Currie Coliseum in Scooba, while head coach Isaiah Butler's EMCC Lady Lions (7-12, 5-7 MACCC) will head to Meridian to meet the Lady Eagles at MCC's Graham Gymnasium. Both contests are slated for 6 p.m. tip-offs.