Second-half turnaround propels EMCC Lions to 77-67 win at Coahoma

CLARKSDALE – A career-high 34 points from Tremaine Dixon Jr. helped spark the East Mississippi Community College men's basketball team to a 77-67 come-from-behind road victory over Coahoma during Monday's MACCC hoops action played at the Pinnacle. The EMCC women began the twin-bill by dropping a 61-43 decision to CCC's Lady Tigers.

With the exception of four first-half ties, the Lions trailed home-standing Coahoma throughout the opening half of the men's contest. After five made three-pointers helped the Tigers open up a 15-point (39-24) advantage late in the first half, Dixon Jr.'s pair of treys during the final 35 seconds of the half gave the visitors some much-needed momentum heading into halftime.

Aided by some costly Coahoma turnovers caused by EMCC's pressure defense, the Lions scored the first 10 points of the second stanza before the Tigers got back on the scoreboard nearly four minutes into the half. Sayerr Senghore's three-point play gave the Lions their first lead (45-43) of the game at the 15:39 mark.

With EMCC's Nick Walker scoring all of his 12 points in the second half on 6-of-8 shooting, the Lions grabbed a five-point lead (55-50) midway through the half. The visitors then held onto the slim lead until the Tigers briefly went back ahead, 57-55, on another three-point basket.

Following three more deadlocks and an additional trio of lead changes during a three-minute stretch late in the game, the Lions responded to Coahoma's eighth made trey of the contest by scoring the final 10 points of the game. Andrew Mason was clutch down the stretch for the visitors by following his own tie-breaking basket with a three-point play at the 1:57 mark to ignite the game-clinching 10-0 run by the Lions. 

On the heels of his pair of momentum-changing three-pointers heading into intermission, Dixon Jr. went on to tally 24 second-half points with six made field goals, including two treys, and 10-of-11 accuracy from the charity stripe. The Raymond High School product's scintillating second-half performance powered the Lions on their 53-28 run over the game's final 21 minutes.

Along with Dixon Jr.'s career-best 34 points, Walker finished with a dozen points and eight rebounds. Mason also came up big following the half by scoring eight of his 10 points in the second half for the Lions, who improved to 14-12 overall and 7-4 in conference play with their seventh win in nine outings dating back to Jan. 25.

EMCC's Lady Lions trailed for the majority of the women's contest. Their lone lead of the night was 8-7 midway through the opening quarter on Kylah Bell's basket following a steal.

After holding a 19-12 lead at the end of the first 10 minutes of play, Coahoma doubled up the visitors, 16-8, in the second quarter to take a 35-20 halftime advantage.

Following a low-scoring (8-8) third quarter, the home-standing Lady Tigers scored the first nine points of the final period to extend the margin to 24 points (52-28). From there, the EMCC women weren't able to get any closer than 16 points the rest of the game.

Bell led EMCC with 14 points, while Nakeria Scales collected 13 rebounds for the Lady Lions.

East Mississippi's basketball teams are set to return to home action on Thursday (Feb. 29) by playing host to the Warriors of East Central Community College. A 5:30 p.m. women's game will be followed by a 7:30 p.m. men's nightcap at Keyes T. Currie Coliseum on the Scooba campus.