2008

www.meridianstar.com NJCAA Region 23 Tournament: East Central vs . Southwest

PHOTOBY PAULA MERRm/TllE MERIDIAN STAR

THE COACH East Central Lady Warrior head basketball coach Billy Smith yells instructions to his players during their game against Southwest Mis– sissippi Community College Monday during the Region 23 tournament at Mississippi College in Clinton. East Central gets past Southwest By Rocky Higginbotham won by 19 in Decatur. s ports editor It looked like the Lady Bears CLINTON -The plan for we r e on the r ight track early, East Central Community College forcing ECCC into s ix turnovers in in its NJCM Region 23 Tourna- the game's first 6 minutes. And ment opener was simple enough: while the Lady Bears led by just Do its best to limit Southwest stars thre e points at that juncture, they Kimberly Griffin and EAST CEN used a 3-pointer from Phe nicia Taylor. Hope Swindle and a put- In the e nd , it was 81 back from Whitley Wiltz really only the Lady War- to help push the advan- riors' efforts which mat- tage to as much a~ 22- tered. 13. T welve second"

East Central shook off a nervous start by turning a nine-point deficit into a nine-point halftime lead, and the Lady Warriors never trailed again in an 81-72 win ove r Southwest

SOUTHWESl 72

later, Southwest's 6-foot- 1 ce nter Erin Brabham went to the bench with he r thir d foul. And although Brabham had done little to hurt East

PHOTO BY PAULA MERRITT/THE MERIDIAN STAR

.. SQUEEZING THROUGH East Central Community College's Mystee Dale tnes to power her way past Southwest Commumty College defenders dunng the Region 23 tournament at MiSSISSippi College In Clinton.

Central - that's when the tables turned for the Lady Warriors. "We had to pick who we wanted to try to slow down." ECCC head coach Bill Smith said. "And we came in trying to limit (Taylor) and (Griffi n) as much as we c ould. "It helped when their big girl went to t11e bench, buf1t was really just a matte r of us settling down.

here at Mississippi College's A. E. Wood Coliseum. The win improves ECCC's ladies to 20-6 on the season and move s them into a 2 p.m. semi– final game Wednesday against either Itawamba or Pearl River. Southwest finis hed 18-8. It was the rubber match between the South Division rivals, with Southwest winning by 13 on its home floor while East Central

basket from Allison Phillips and a :-!-pointer from J anesha Brown got the Lad\ Warriors back in the game. atid a put back from Taway– atha Evan!' pulled FC within one. See ECCC Page 84 ----~~~~----~--~ -~~-_)

Once we ~topped turnin~ the ball over. we were able to run a lot of our sets and get into what we .,.,aniNI Lo do. We just had to sdtlc down." ECCC!s..big!TP. I flp,lk.it W;l"-– nme. but it didn't take- the J.,1dv Warriors long to gl't even. A big