EMCC Lady Lions fall 56-48 at Coahoma in NJCAA Region 23 Tournament first-round play

CLARKSDALE – The East Mississippi Community College women's basketball season came to a close with Monday night's 56-48 road setback to fifth-seeded Coahoma in the opening round of the NJCAA Region 23 Women's Basketball Tournament.

Seeded 12^th in this week's region tourney, the visiting Lady Lions owned the early advantage and battled the entire 40 minutes during the season's rubber game between East Mississippi and Coahoma. The rematch also featured the return to the CCC campus for EMCC first-year head women's coach Isaiah Butler, who spent the previous four seasons in Clarksdale as an assistant coach on Stephanie Murphy's Coahoma coaching staff.

Aided by a pair of free throws and a made three-pointer by sophomore point guard DJ Williams, EMCC made a 7-0 run at the end of the opening quarter to take an early 11-7 lead at the first break. The visitors maintained as much as a six-point lead (27-21) with around three minutes left in the second quarter on Hannah McDougle's jumper, before Coahoma's Janiya Jones scored seven straight points late in the half to rally the home team back to a 28-28 tie by halftime.

Following intermission, the Lady Lions scored the first five points of the second stanza on an inside basket from Nakeria Scales and DJ Williams' second made trey of the game. EMCC held the lead for most of the third quarter until Jones' baseline jumper at the 2:23 mark knotted the score at 37-37. Tiara Abron's pair of baskets late in the quarter helped give the Lady Tigers a slim 41-40 edge heading into the final 10 minutes of play.

Abron's banked three-point shot three minutes into the fourth quarter then seemed to provide the spark that Coahoma needed the rest of the way. With EMCC being held to just eight fourth-quarter points, Elishia Wilson's put-back basket for CCC made it a two-possession game (49-45) with just over two minutes remaining in the contest.

Following more than a minute of scoreless play, Jones came up big again for Coahoma with a three-pointer that just beat the shot clock buzzer to give the Lady Tigers a seven-point lead (52-45) with only 35.1 seconds left on the game clock. Despite Sadie Williams' answer trey for EMCC down the stretch, Coahoma sealed the eight-point victory by going 4-of-6 from the charity stripe over the game's final 27.4 seconds.

Finishing the season with a 7-15 overall record, EMCC's Lady Lions were led by Sadie Williams' all-around effort with 11 points, six rebounds and five assists. DJ Williams followed with nine points and seven rebounds.

Abron and Jones paced all game scorers with 21 points apiece for Coahoma.