2003

Warriors rally to beat Eagles

Trailing 87-b3, ~1CC lost any chance at a comeback when Jamal Edmondson lost the ball out of bounds with 27 seconds remaining. Corey Hornsby led ECCC with 26 points. Mason had 20, Crenshaw added 17, and Demario Qualls 12. "Brandon Mason had his best game of the year," Smith said. "He really stepped up. Any time you have four people in double figures you can win a lot of games. We shot it better tonight than we did Monday (in a loss to Southwest Mississippi). That put us 3-1 in the djvision with two wins on the road. We feel like we're in pretty good shape." ECCC improved to 9-5 overall. MCC slumped to 5-8 and 1-3 in losing its fifth consecutive game. "Our threes and fours played like cowards down the stretch," MCC coach George Brooks said of his team's collapse. "We didn't rebound, we didn't make layups, we didn't make free throws. "They played like little girls down the stretch. They need to be playing seventh grade girls at KG (Kate Griffin) or something. That's how they played." Edmondson led MCC with 23 points as he connected on five 3- pointers. Mecose Todd had four treys and 17 points. Willis had four treys and 16 point$. Kenny Boyd added 13 points. · The Eagles had 13 total3-pointers. "We've hit a lot of threes all year," Brooks said. "This team wa~ aver– aging 89 points a game first semester. I wasn't surprised by that.~ East Central goes to Co-Lin on Mondav \feridian ho-rs Gulf Coast on Tue~day nieht.

By Marty Stamper EMG sports assistant

It didn't look good for the East Cen– tral Community College Warriors as they tangled with Meridian Commu– nity College for the first time in nearly two decades Thursday at MCC's lv)r Sports Center. The Eagles had nine 3-pointers in the first half as they took a 41-39lead into the break. MCC led the MACJC South Divi– sion contest 70.59 with 8:26 remaining after J .R. Willis drilled his fourth 3- pointer and the 13th of the night for the Eagles. However, MCC wouldn't hit anoth~r trey and ECCC battled its way back mto the contest, pulling even at 79-79 on a basket by Brandon Mason with 3:33 left. "I don't know what they shot in the first half, but they were relying on those," ECCC head coach Bill Smith ~aid of the Eagles' 3-point bombs. They had 27 points off of threes in the first half and we told our guys to kinda cut that down. "They missed a couple late and we just fought real hard. We didn't make very many mistakes down the stretch and handled the ball real well. better than we did the first three-quarters of the game. \Ve sent five ·ophomores in there and ther're supposed to know how to handle that situation at the end." Tied_ at 79-79, the Eagles were called for a three-second violation on API their next possession, then made just LA t rwo of lheir next four free throws as r 1 he Warrior-: ea ed out to an 86-81 SC( lead v:ilh 50 seconds showing. During the 7-2 run, ECCC got two baskets

CARTHAGINIAN ---------------------- NESHOBA DEMOCRAT - ------- NEWTON RECORD ------------------- MERIDIAN STAR ---------------------- CLARION-LEDGER._______

UN I :rom KE\;n Bobbitt, one from Mason Wi t. and .. .ree throw from Donze] Cren~ I ' shaw SPIRIT OF MORTON_______