Lady Lions drop close 56-51 home decision to Hinds

SCOOBA – The East Mississippi Community College women's basketball team dropped a close 56-51 home decision to Hinds during Monday's MACCC action played at Keyes T. Currie Coliseum. In the nightcap, EMCC's Lions led visiting Hinds from the opening tipoff to the final buzzer en route to snapping a six-game losing skid with their 70-62 home conference victory over the Bulldogs.

In women's action, the two teams battled tooth and nail throughout the contest. After the home-standing Lady Lions took a slight 16-15 lead by the end of the opening quarter, Hinds used a 7-1 spark midway through the low-scoring second quarter to claim a 26-22 halftime advantage. The 11-6 second quarter won by Hinds marked the lone period in the game that was decided by more than one point.

Following intermission, the third quarter featured four lead changes and a pair of deadlocks before the visitors took a 42-39 lead into the game's final 10 minutes of action. After Hinds moved ahead 48-42, Kennedi McCray's steal and resulting basket followed by Shalea Boddie's bank shot midway through the quarter capped a 7-0 EMCC rally that gave the Lady Lions what would be their final lead of the contest.

From EMCC's 49-48 lead at the 5:36 mark, the Lady Bulldogs went on an 11-2 run during a five-minute span in which the Lady Lions missed four straight free throw attempts. EMCC did manage to cut the deficit to a one-score difference (59-56) on Micaiah Satcher's steal and bucket with just seven ticks remaining on the game clock, but Hinds' Lamaria Jones hit the back end of a two-shot foul to seal the four-point road win for the visitors.

With season's leading scorer Dukiaha Jones struggling with 1-of-14 shooting from the field, EMCC was paced by Boddie's dozen points and 10 rebounds for her second straight double-double outing. McCray followed with 11 points, four rebounds, four steals and three assists for the Lady Lions.

Jasi Jenkins led a trio of double-digit scorers for Hinds with 14 points. Hannah Moore and Myan Bartholemy followed with 12 and 11 points, respectively, for the Lady Bulldogs.

In the men's nightcap, the home-standing Lions used an 11-2 run, sparked by a Josh Brown 3-pointer and capped by Yamari Allette's made trey, late in the opening half to move out to a 10-point (36-26) halftime lead.

For the better part of the second stanza, EMCC held at least a nine-point advantage that grew to as many as 15 points (59-44) following another Allette triple midway through the half. The Lions continued to lead by a dozen points (67-55) with under a minute remaining in the contest before some late scoring by Hinds whittled the deficit down to seven points during the game's final seconds.

The Lions' balanced scoring attack proved pivotal as they controlled the contest for most of the 40 minutes of play. Individually, Curly Robinson's game-changing contributions off the bench also paid big dividends for the Lions. The freshman forward from Forest nearly recorded a double-double with season-high efforts of 12 points and nine rebounds, including six offensive boards.

Also contributing off the EMCC bench, freshman guard Jermaurhiyun Anderson paced the Lions' quartet of double-digit scorers with 15 points during just his second non-start of the season. Fellow freshmen DeAndre Lewis and Allette followed with 14 and 13 points, respectively, to help lead the 10-17 Lions (4-8 in MACCC play) to their first victory during the month of February.

Jakobe Singleton paced Hinds' scorers with a game-high 24 points while also grabbing 10 rebounds. Isaac Ratliff also registered a double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds for the Bulldogs.

East Mississippi's regular season winds down with Thursday's (Feb. 27) road trip to Itawamba followed by Monday's (March 3) home hoops doubleheader against Meridian.