EMCC Lions head to Indiana for the Kiwanis Classic to tip off the 2024-25 men's hoops season
East Mississippi Community College’s 2024-25 men’s basketball season is set to tip off this week with the two-day Kiwanis Classic hosted by Vincennes University in Indiana. The Lions will take on preseason 18th-ranked Vincennes in opening-round tournament action on Friday (6 p.m. CT) before meeting Olney Central (IL) Saturday at 4 p.m. CT.
SCOOBA - East Mississippi Community College's 2024-25 men's basketball season is set to tip off with the two-day Kiwanis Classic hosted by Vincennes University in Indiana. The Lions will take on preseason 18th-ranked Vincennes in opening-round tournament action on Friday (6 p.m. CT) before meeting Olney Central (IL) Saturday at 4 p.m. CT.
Featuring 13 newcomers on their 14-man roster, head men's basketball coach Billy Begley's 2024-25 EMCC Lions will continue in tournament mode the following week (Nov. 8-9) at the Northeast Mississippi-hosted Bonner Arnold Classic in Booneville by playing Alabama-based Reid State Technical College on Friday (5 p.m.) and Wallace-Selma on Saturday (2 p.m.).
EMCC's home basketball slate tips off with Tuscaloosa-based Shelton State and Birmingham-based Lawson State on Nov. 11 and 14, respectively. Both playing dates will include 5:30 p.m. women's games followed by 7:30 p.m. men's contests at Keyes T. Currie Coliseum on the Scooba campus.
The Lions will then play on the road for the remainder of November by traveling to Lawson State (Nov. 16) and Jones College (Nov. 21) prior to meeting Southern-Shreveport in a neutral-site contest to be played Nov. 23 on the Pearl River Community College campus in Poplarville.
With the EMCC men's team returning only Donovan Griffin (Starkville, MS/DeSoto Central HS) from last year's 16-14 squad that earned a sixth consecutive NJCAA Region 23 Tournament appearance and a third straight No. 4 postseason tourney seeding, the 2024-25 Lions feature a new-look collection consisting of one university transfer, four junior college transfers and eight incoming freshmen from the high school ranks.
The five-man transfer group is comprised of Yamari Allette (Toronto, Ontario, Canada/Old Dominion University), Nate Pruitt and Jonathan Baker (both Starkville products from Hinds CC), Israel Griffin (Daytona Beach, FL/Cochise [AZ] College), and Brian Kitenge (Charlotte, NC/Hagerstown [MD] CC).
The 2024-25 Lions are expected to be powered by 2023-24 Jackson Clarion-Ledger Preseason Dandy Dozen pick DeAndre Lewis, out of reigning MHSAA Class 5A state champion Canton High School, along with highly-recruited South Carolina native Jermaurhiyun Anderson, from Quality Education Academy in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
EMCC's additional newcomers from the prep ranks are Keymarius Lewis (Edwards, MS/Raymond HS), Josh Brown (Canton, MS/Canton HS), Curly Robinson (Forest, MS/Forest HS), Jackson Redmond (Starkville, MS/Link Academy), Omari Glenn (Macon, MS/Noxubee County HS), and Kaleb Hutchins (Walnut Grove, MS/Northwest Rankin HS).