2006

ECCC sweeps Jones JC By Marty Stamper staff writer DECATUR - East Central Community College took a pair of MACJC South Division contests from Jones Junior College Monday night at the Brackeen-Wood Phys– ical Education Building. Neither contest was decided until the final seconds as the ECCC women won 66-62 and the Warriors won 71-68. With the sweep, the Lady War– riors improved to 9-5 overall and 2- 1 in the South Division. The War– riors upped their overall mark to 11-3 and their division record to 2-1. 11le Jones women fell to 6-6 and 2-1. while the Bobcats dropped to 3-8 and 1-2. ECCC women 66 Jones 62 The Lady Warriors .held a 10- point lead midway throukh the first half and were up by 16 at 33-17 with just over seven minutes remaining in the half. Jones dosed the half by scoring 12 of the next 14 points to trail 35-29 at the break. The rest of the night was a struggle as ECCC led by five when Shannon Lloyd scored in the lane for a 42-37 lead with 15:31 to go, only to have Jones tak~ a 51-49lead on a 3-pointer by Leondra Phillips with 8:37 to go. A three-point play by Lloyd gave the Lady Warriors a 57-5llead with 6:48 left, but two free throws by Chinita Steele trimmed the lead to 57-56 with 5:53 still to play. The Lady Warriors went back up by six on a putback basket by Lloyd with 3:01 to go and Jones got no closer than three when Chelsey umrall hit a 3-pointer with 42 sec– onds remaining. LaSaundra Harrison upped the ECCC lead to four with a free throw with 24 seconds left. The inability to keep the early double-digit lead didn't sit well with ECCC head coach Bill Smith. "We didn't play very well the second haU,~ Smith said. "We let up a lot m the first half when we got them down 16: We just ?idn't have a

- ---· -·.J" ''We subbed in a lot of people and played everybody in the first half. We just didn't maintain the momentum we had when we got them down 16. We did just good enough in the second half to pull out a win." Famng to maintain the momentum from the comeback surge was a sore spot for Jones head coach Sandra Sumrall. "When we did (come back), we Jet them outhustle us," Sumrall said. "That's what I'm so disap– pointed in. We didn't hustle. They're scared to death and just standing and watching the game in tead of getting out there and making sure things happen. We can't play that way. That's not what a Lady Bobcat does." ECCC made 11-of-15 free throws over the final 7:33 to get the win. ''That was probably the differ– ence because we shot them and they didn't," Smith said. "We were just fortunate to get this one." Lloyd led ECCC with 18 points. Harrison and Andrea Dubose both had 11 and Sara Judice added nine. Jones got 20 points from Steele, 13 from Kelsey Hopkins and 11 from Rosemary Green. ECCC men 71 Jones 68 The Warriors played just well enough over the fmal eight minutes to get the comeback win. J ones took a 39-36 lead into halftime after being up by as many as 12 points in the first half. After six lead changes, the Bobcats were up 59-56 with 8:18 to play. After going down 61-57 on a tip in by Clinton Thomas Jr., the War– riors ran off eight straight points with Sam Walton and Johnny Hodge both getting four. Duran Eckford drained a 3- pointer to pull Jones to within 65-64 with 2:50 left, but Hodge made all four of his free shots over a 40- second span to extend ECCC's lead . to 69-64 with 1:35 to go. Trailing 69-66, the Bobcats lost a potential basket on a charging foul with 40 seconds left and Walton and Hodge each hit a free throw over the final 23 seconds to seal the win. "It was an ugly win," ECCC head coach Steve Hampton said. ECCC got 19 points from Hodge, 18 from Walton, 10 from Bryan Johnson and eight from Andre Coleman.

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