1991

\\ 1: El\ 0 F

By MARTY STAMPER Star sports ... ter

JUCO Basketball

PLARVILLE- U East Central coach Jay Bowen and Jones coach Marc Dukes were all smiles prior to their Wednesday night Mississippi Community College South Division semifinal, it was because

they knew they both had already earned trips to the the gap to 74-73 at the 1:52 mark. Region 23 Tournament in two weeks. Gulf Coast Jones led/7-73 with 50 seconds left. A steal by saw to that with a 91-72 afternoon win over Hinds. Sterling and a layup from Scotty McCullough in- Those les were soon erased as their teams got creased the lead to six. down to th usiness of seeing who would play Gulf Kennedy whittled it to 79-76 with a three-point Coast for the South Division title at 8 tonight and play with 27 seconds left. earn a trip to next week's state tournament. After McCullough missed two free shots, It would be Jones that took the win, claiming an ECCC's Tyrone Stowers hit one of two freebies 80-77 decision over the Warriors. with 10 seconds left Sterling rebounded the miss Jones jumped out to a 46-35 halftime lead behind and was fouled. He added a free shot to extend the 13 points fr:om Wyatt Sterling, 12 from Chris Kee- lead to three and Bailey's attempt at a tying 3-poin- ton, and 11 from Justin White. ter was off target. "We got off to a good start for once," Dukes said. JCJC was only 6-of-14 at the charity stripe in the "It was kind of like being in a dream sitting here the fmal 6:08. first 15 minutes. The guys have just risen to the Bowen hopes to get his team out of a recent bad occasion.·· habit before the regional. Dukes told his team they were region tourney "'The last three or four games, we've only played bound prior to the game. the last 10 minutes and they expect to win," Bowen "I told them there wasn't any pressure on us be- said of his 21-5 team. "We dug such a deep hole cause we already had the regionals," he said. tonight and they thought we could come back. Jones led 5545 with 13:22 to play before ECCC Against a good team, you can't play just the last 10 began slowly whittling its deficit to 66-61 with 7:34 minutes and win. You have to play the full 40 mi- sbowing after a 3-pointer from Tony Baile). nutes. We couldn't guard anybody tonight. With the arriors scoring baskets and Jones only "The players are mine for 10 days to practice for getting one successful free shot, the difference the region. We'll be ready for the region. We're shrank to 72-69 with 4:08 left. excited about being in the region. Hopefully we'll After Jones went back up by flv~JBJt>aib!t;~tt(l do weu... from Terry Thames and Kevin K d Sterling had 19 points each for Jones,

while Keeton bad 16. •_ Bailey led ECCC with 17, while Kennedy had J, and St wers and Thames 11 ~ach. . Jones improved to 20-8, setnn_g a _school s~gle­ scason record for wins.and earrun~ tlS ftrst tnp to state since 1977 and tLS first rcgton berth smce 1988. JONES (It)- Jllltin While 19, Chris Kce~m 16, Scouy McCullouah ~· Wyatt SIC:rlina 19, Joteph Cooper 8, Stanley McCollum 4, Joe Brown 2. Eric Jonea 7, hmea Hania 2. .._ .... Slriblin EAST CFJIIRAL rn>- Lulber Riley 8, Tcn-y 'Thmlea 11,..,..... I 7 MalVin Nun 2 Kevin Kennedy 13, Tony Bailey 17, Tyrone Stowc:n 11, M.ct,.c1 J- i Vandy Hop~on S, J.P VivereUO 1. Half\lme Score: Jonea. 4&-35.

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CARTHAG I NIAK

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