Short-handed EMCC women drop 80-61 decision at Northeast

BOONEVILLE – Coming off last week's home hoops sweep over Mississippi Delta, the East Mississippi Community College basketball teams both fell on the road to Northeast Mississippi during Tuesday's MACCC action played at Bonner Arnold Coliseum. The Lions dropped a hard-fought 72-70 men's decision in the nightcap after the short-handed EMCC women were knocked off by the Tigers, 80-61, in the opening game.

The women's contest remained close until a 10-0 Northeast run midway through the second quarter turned a six-point game (24-18) into a 16-point cushion for the Lady Tigers.

Benefitting from a commanding 55-36 rebounding advantage in the 19-point victory, the Northeast women didn't allow the visitors to get any closer than 15 points after maintaining a 41-26 halftime margin.

Both teams featured four double-figure scorers in the women's game. Kiara Howard led the Lady Lions with 17 points, while Nakeria Scales registered her eighth career double-double with 14 points and 16 rebounds. Shalea Boddie also had 14 points and Hannah McDougle added a dozen points for the EMCC women, who suited up only seven players.

Northeast's Madison Gardner tossed in a game-high 18 points, while Jasmine Malone (13), Jakeria Hawkins (12) and Jerrilyn Richardson (11) all followed with double-digit scoring efforts for the Lady Tigers.

The men's nightcap was competitive from the opening tipoff to the final buzzer. After the home-standing Tigers held an early 13-point (19-6) advantage, the Lions spent the rest of the contest trying to overtake the deficit.

Riding the hot hand of Ashten Michael, who was a perfect 4-of-4 from beyond the three-point arc in the opening half on his way to a career night, EMCC was able to trim the Northeast lead to three points.

After trailing by six points (41-35) at halftime, the Lions managed to tie the contest twice during the second stanza. Midway through the half, EMCC's Andrew Mason knotted the score at 56-56 with a three-point play. Northeast answered with a 9-3 run to get the margin back to six points (65-59) by the 7:14 mark.

Coming down the stretch, the Lions had a chance to grab their first lead since very early in the game. After grabbing a clutch offensive rebound off a missed free throw, Sayerr Senghore couldn't connect on the back end of his own two-shot foul that would have given the visitors the lead with just over a minute left in regulation.

The biggest play of the game came with the game tied at 69-69 when Northeast's Tyler Byrd completed a three-point play with the shot clock running down and only 2.7 seconds remaining on the game clock. Following multiple timeouts, the Tigers fouled EMCC's Nick Walker in the backcourt, who hit the front end of a two-shot foul before his second attempt bounded away from the lane as the final buzzer sounded.

EMCC's Michael tied for game scoring honors with Northeast's Byrd by hitting 6-of-8 treys for a career-high 19 points. Mason followed with 15 points, while Walker recorded his 20^th career double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Senghore just missed a double-double with nine points and a career-most 13 rebounds.

Byrd paced a quartet of double-figure scorers for the Tigers with 19 points to go along with nine boards. Ronnie Ellis followed with 17 points, while Allen Hughes and Caleb Parr added 13 and 12 points, respectively, for Northeast.

Head coach Billy Begley's EMCC Lions (12-12, 5-4 MACCC) and head coach Isaiah Butler's EMCC Lady Lions (4-19, 1-8 MACCC) are scheduled to play host to the Wildcats of Pearl River Community College on Thursday (Feb. 22). A 5:30 p.m. women's game will be followed by a 7:30 p.m. men's contest at EMCC's Keyes T. Currie Coliseum on the Scooba campus.