EMCC falls 74-73 to Northeast on tip-in basket at buzzer in NJCAA Region 23 title game

CLINTON - Wesley Harris' tip-in basket at the buzzer lifted Northeast Mississippi Community College to a 74-73 win over East Mississippi Community College in Saturday night's championship game of the NJCAA Region 23 Basketball Tournament played at A.E. Wood Coliseum on the Mississippi College campus.

Seeded seventh and eighth, respectively, in the region tournament field, both EMCC and NEMCC have advanced to the NJCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship, March 14-19, in Hutchinson, Kansas.  The Northeast Tigers will be the Region 23/District XV automatic qualifier, while the EMCC Lions earn the zone qualifier bid for Region 23/District XV.

The classic championship contest went down to the wire.  With the Lions down by six points with two minutes remaining, EMCC took a 71-70 lead after back-to-back steals were converted into baskets by Daniel Simmons and Jahyde Gardiner.  Following a pair of free throws by Northeast's Kendarius Smith, the Lions went back ahead 73-72 on Anterio McKines' step-back jumper with 12 seconds left.

After NEMCC's Desmin Harris stepped out of bounds in front of his own bench, the Lions got the ball back with only the final 2.3 seconds left to play.  However, EMCC's length-of-the-court inbounds pass went untouched and out of bounds to set up the game's final play.  In the blink of an eye, Leroy Buchanan's outside jumper fell short of the rim but into the hands of Harris, who promptly tipped it in at the final buzzer for the victory.

Up until that point, Northeast maintained control of the game throughout the opening 20 minutes of play to secure a 43-38 halftime advantage.  The Lions came roaring out of the halftime break as Simmons and Nat Dixon combined to score the first nine points of the second half to give EMCC its first lead (45-43) since the game's opening basket.  Capped by the contest's climactic finish, the second half featured eight lead changes and three ties.      

Making the NJCAA Region 23 all-tournament team along with Buchanan, Wesley Harris led all scorers with 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting, including 5-of-9 from beyond the three-point arc.  With the Tigers improving to 18-9 overall on the season, Desmin Harris and Tray Lawson followed with 13 and 12 points, respectively, for the winners.  Getting to the regional finals by knocking off top-seeded and reigning region champion Holmes (88-81) as well as Northwest Mississippi (75-73), NEMCC claimed its first Region 23 men's basketball championship since the 1999-2000 campaign. 

Having notched their sixth 20-win season in the past seven years, EMCC was led by Simmons' 15 points, though the Biggersville High School product struggled with just 1-of-9 shooting from beyond the three-point arc.  On the heels of scoring 26 and 22 points in respective region tournament wins over Mississippi Gulf Coast and Southern-Shreveport, Simmons received all-tournament honors along with teammate Juan Davis Jr.  Davis, from West Point, and Quitman's Anterio McKines followed with 11 points apiece in the title game.

Headed back to the national tournament for the fifth time in the last seven years, East Mississippi previously claimed four straight NJCAA Region 23 men's basketball championships from 2010-2013 under the direction of former head coach Mark White, currently at Tallahassee Community College.  First-year EMCC head coach Billy Begley was White's assistant coach during the Lions' successful three-year run spanning the 2010-11 and 2012-13 seasons.

Slated for March 14-19 at Hutchinson's Sports Arena in Kansas, this year's 69^th NJCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship will be comprised of a 24-team field in a single-elimination tournament.  The champions of the NJCAA's 16 districts receive automatic bids to the national tournament and will be joined by four at-large teams and four zone qualifiers from across the country.

With the fully seeded bracket set to be announced Monday afternoon, this year's entire national tournament will be live-streamed on NJCAA TV (www.njcaatv.com).  Additional information, including a complete bracket, tournament results and game statistics, will be available online at www.njcaabbtrny.org.