EMCC Lady Lions get back on track with 54-49 home win over Northwest

SCOOBA – Marking their first home doubleheader appearance of the 2023-24 basketball season, East Mississippi Community College swept visiting Northwest Mississippi during Monday's non-conference hoops action played at Keyes T. Currie Coliseum. Following the Lady Lions' 54-49 win, the EMCC men completed the sweep with a solid 74-50 victory over the Rangers.

In the women's game, the visitors led for the majority of the opening quarter until Hannah McDougle connected on consecutive baskets to give the Lady Lions their first lead of the game at 14-13.

Started by a three-point basket from EMCC's Kiara Howard, the second quarter featured five lead changes. Following the Lady Lions' final lead (23-22) of the quarter, Northwest tallied six straight points near the end of the half to take a slight 28-25 lead into intermission.

Following halftime, EMCC opened the third quarter on a 10-2 spurt that was capped by Nakeria Scales' put-back basket. After the Lady Lions increased their lead to six points (38-32) with 3:25 left in the quarter, they held onto a three-point advantage (40-37) heading into the final period.

Sparked by Ramya King's two made free throws and a three-point play, EMCC went back up by six points (45-39) three minutes into the quarter. The Lady Rangers climbed to within a point (46-45) on Mariah Reed-Jones' basket with four minutes left in the contest.

After Northwest misfired on a pair of free throws and then didn't take advantage of an offensive rebound opportunity, Scales drilled a clutch jumper to extend EMCC's lead to 50-47 with 41.9 seconds left. Kennedi McCray later nailed down Northwest's first loss of the year by connecting on four charity tosses down the stretch.

EMCC's Scales led all game scorers and rebounders with 16 points and 10 rebounds, while King added a career-high 12 points for the winners.

Northwest's lone double-digit scorer in the women's game was Zaria Glover with 11 points.

The men's contest was not nearly as close beginning with the opening minutes of play. Hunter McCutcheon set the tone with consecutive three-pointers, and Andrew Mason followed with another made trey that extended the Lions' lead to double digits (13-2) for the remainder of the game.

The Rangers got as close as 10 points (21-11) by the 6:20 mark of the first half, but the EMCC men answered with six straight points to move ahead, 27-11. The Lions went on to own a 14-point (33-19) halftime advantage.

After Northwest again cut the deficit to 10 points (34-24) early in the second half on Darren Davis' three-pointer, Mason and McCutcheon combined to lengthen the lead to 16 points (40-24) on a three-point play and three-point shot, respectively, by the Kentucky natives.

From there, EMCC's margin reached the 20-point mark (56-36) on Sayerr Senghore's slam midway through the half. Senghore added another breakaway dunk later in the game following a steal to give the Lions their largest lead (74-45) of the game during the final minute of play. 

EMCC's Mason reached double-digit points for the sixth time in as many games this season with a game-high 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field. McCutcheon followed with a season-best 16 points on four three-pointers, while Nick Walker was also in double figures with 10 points for the Lions.

In being limited to 29-percent shooting from the field (18-62 FGs), including just 3-of-19 (16%) from three-point range, the Northwest men were led by Davis' double-double effort of 13 points and 11 rebounds.

The East Mississippi basketball teams are scheduled to continue their current home stand by playing host to Shelton State on Monday (Dec. 4). A 5:30 p.m. women's game will be followed by a 7:30 p.m. men's contest at EMCC's Currie Coliseum. Both Lion teams are then slated to wrap up their pre-Christmas hoops slate by hosting MACCC foes Jones College on Dec. 7 (5:30 & 7:30 p.m.) and Meridian CC on Dec. 11 (1 & 3 p.m.) on the Scooba campus.