Lions drop hard-fought 60-58 overtime decision at Mississippi Delta

MOORHEAD – The East Mississippi Community College women's basketball team completed an unbeaten week of competition by earning a 49-41 road win over Mississippi Delta during Thursday's MACCC action played at J.T. Hall Coliseum. The EMCC men fell for the second time during the week by dropping a hard-fought 60-58 overtime decision to the Trojans in the nightcap.

Earlier in the week during Monday's home doubleheader on the Scooba campus, the Lady Lions claimed a 61-42 home victory over Jones College, while the EMCC men fell 78-70 to the sixth-ranked Bobcats.

In the men's nightcap, the home-standing Trojans scored the game's first seven points and held the advantage until EMCC regrouped at halftime and scored a dozen unanswered points early in the second stanza to change the momentum of the contest.

With Delta owning a 30-24 halftime lead, the defensive battle briefly turned into a 3-point shooting fest as both teams combined for six straight made treys early in the second half. Yamari Allette ignited a 15-2 EMCC spark with a trio of 3-pointers that helped turn a seven-point deficit into a six-point lead (48-42) with around five minutes left in regulation.

The momentum quickly switched back in favor of the Trojans when 6-foot-9 center Davion Traylor scored six unanswered points during a three-minute stretch to knot the score at 48-48 with 1:33 left on the game clock. Neither team could capitalize on scoring opportunities down the final stretch of regulation as the game went into overtime.

The Trojans re-established control of the contest by scoring the first nine points of the extra session, including back-to-back inside baskets by Traylor. To their credit, the Lions continued to battle back and managed to cut the deficit to two points (60-58) on Allette's inside bucket on a feed from Jermaurhiyun Anderson with 21.9 seconds left on the game clock. Traylor was sent to the free throw line for a one-and-one opportunity with 4.2 seconds left. His errant first shot was grabbed by EMCC's DeAndre Lewis for one final desperation play following a timeout. However, Delta's backcourt pressure prevented the basketball from reaching the front court with just the three seconds that were available to the Lions (9-13, 3-4 MACCC).

Allette was the lone EMCC player to score in double figures with 16 points on four made 3-pointers.

In Thursday's opening game at Delta, EMCC's Lady Lions turned an early 10-6 deficit into a 17-10 lead at the beginning of the second quarter by scoring 11 unanswered points. The visitors did not relinquish their advantage for the remainder of the contest, though the Lady Trojans did pull to within a basket during the second quarter.

EMCC extended its six-point (29-23) halftime lead to nine points (37-28) heading to the game's final 10 minutes following a low-scoring third quarter that consisted of only 13 combined points (8-5) between the two teams.

After the Lady Lions increased their advantage to a game-most 10 points (41-31) early in the fourth quarter, Delta's tandem of Lauren Nelson and Jada Foster combined to score eight unanswered points between them to cut EMCC's lead to just two points with around four minutes remaining in the game.

The Lady Trojans' comeback attempt then came to a halt as they failed to score again in the contest. Meanwhile, EMCC's Dukiaha Jones scored the game's last six points during the final 1:31 by converting a steal and adding a pair of nearly identical scoring drives to the basket.

Jones approached a double-double effort for the game with a team-high 15 points along with totaling nine rebounds and five steals. Raegan Jordan and Shalea Boddie added seven and six points, respectively, for the Lady Lions (8-11, 3-4 MACCC).

East Mississippi's basketball teams return home to play host to the Northeast Mississippi Tigers on Monday (Feb. 10). 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.