1982-1986

ECJC loses tight one to Wallace By Frank Williamson The Meridian Star

"He went in to shoot it and that's how we plann– ed it," Gressett said. "We planned for him to break through the middle and get the 9pen shot, and of course, we had to go for the three-pointer.'' But, after the Warriors got into the overtime, they couldn't stay with the Lions . "We ~ame down and threw the ball away twice, " Gressett said, "then we let them have a layup so we gave up six p,oints right there without doing anything about it. ' The loss nullified a 36-point, seven-rebound per– formance from Anderson. Patrick Luttrell added 23 points and 10 rebounds , Greg Wells scored 15 and Terry Hoskins provided 12. Wallace State - now 2-3 on the season - got 20 points, including a three-pointer, and nine re- · bounds from sophomore Glenn Davis . Greg Ellison added 19 points, eight of them in overtime and Tracy Gooden chipped in 16 points and 12 rebounds . "We were standing around too much," Wallace State coach Bobby McCracken said about the beginning of the second half. "We were standing around, not pl'aying defense, just acting like a team who had a 10-point lead. Of course, we 've got almost all freshman except one

ELLISVILLE - East Central Junior College basketball coach Larry Gressett knows his young team will eventually learn to win the close ones, but the pressure is mounting . Gressett's Warriors opened the Jones County Junior College-Pepsi-Cola Invitational Tourna– ment here Monday night with a 96-94 overtime loss to Wallace State (Ala. ) Community College. The loss was his team's sixth in seven tries and the fifth game to be decided by two points or less. "We keep beating ourselves, " Gressett said after the game. "We can't get a killer instinct. We came back from 10 points down to take the lead: We did that Saturday night against East Mississippi - came back from 10 points down to take the lead and still lost. We can't seem to stand prosperity. " To give the Hanceville, Ala.-based Lions credit, East Central had to fight back for much of the night. After six deadlocks and two lead changes in the game's first 11 minutes, Wallace State outscored the Warriors 10-1 in the next 3 1 12 to take a 36-27 ad– vantage with 5:10 to go until. halftime. By inter– mission, the Lions had padded their lead to 51-41. With 10 :02 remaining, the Warriors took a 66-65 lead, but the see-saw action continued. Wallace State took an 84-81 lead with eight seconds remain– ing, then Gary Anderson - ironically the game's leading scorer and only Alabama native on East Central's squad - beat the final buzzer with a three-pointer.

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