EMCC women's basketball team set to open season at Pensacola State

SCOOBA – The East Mississippi Community College men's and women's basketball teams will be spending Halloween day within the Florida Panhandle region during their respective season openers on Friday (Oct. 31). The EMCC men will be in Niceville for the two-day Raider Classic hosted by Northwest Florida State College, while the Lady Lions will be in Pensacola for a single game against Pensacola State College.

EMCC's Lady Lions, directed by fourth-year head women's basketball coach Isaiah Butler, are slated to also tip off Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. CT against Pensacola State, which is also located within the northwestern part of the Sunshine State.

Butler's EMCC Lady Lions return a trio of sophomores headed by reigning All-MACCC Second Team guard Dukiaha Jones, who led the team in scoring (10.4 ppg) a year ago while finishing her freshman year ranked fourth in the conference with 77 steals for the season. The West Point product posted three 20-point outings and collected four or more steals in a game 13 times on the year.

The other returners who were members of last year's postseason tournament team for the Lady Lions are 20-game starter Micaiah Satcher (Gluckstadt/Germantown HS) and fellow guard Zarria Shipp (Olive Branch/Center Hill HS).

The EMCC women will feature 10 newcomers this season comprised of four transfers and six incoming freshmen. Out-of-state transfers Cenaya Calhoun-Jingles, from Texas by way of Panola College, and native Floridian Aniya Jones, out of the Florida State College of Jacksonville, will be joined by a pair of Magnolia State products with prior MACCC experience. Caledonia's Liberty Hughes and Pass Christian product Ariana Crimm spent the 2024-25 season at Northwest Mississippi and Hinds, respectively, before transferring to East Mississippi.

The new-look Lady Lions welcome six freshmen to the 2025-26 roster, including Mississippi prep products Kabreyia Garth and Bailey Siddell, who teamed to help lead Tupelo High School to back-to-back MHSAA Class 7A state championships, along with Starkville's Ciara Warren and Brookhaven's Zaniya Nunnery. Out-of-state newcomers Trista Brown, from Jacksonville, Fla., and fellow guard La'Nasia DuBois, out of Beloit, Wis., round out EMCC's 13-member women's squad this season.  

Following their season-opening trip to Florida, the Lady Lions are slated to return to Scooba for a three-game homestand followed by three consecutive road games to finish off the month of November. The month begins will home contests against NJCAA Region 23 member Baton Rouge (Nov. 3), Wallace State-Hanceville (Nov. 6) and MACCC foe Holmes (Nov. 10) in non-conference play. EMCC then hits the road to play at league foe Mississippi Gulf Coast (Nov. 13) in a second straight non-conference matchup along with visits to neighboring Alabama to face Shelton State (Nov. 17) and Wallace State-Hanceville (Nov. 20).

The month of December will feature three home games and two road contests prior to the Christmas and New Year's holidays. Perennial powerhouse Shelton State (Dec. 1) and MACCC opponents Northwest Mississippi (Dec. 4) and Jones (Dec. 11) will visit EMCC's newly renovated Keyes T. Currie Coliseum. The Lady Lions will venture to Enterprise State (Dec. 8) and Baton Rouge (Dec. 13) to close out the calendar year, while a road non-conference matchup against Itawamba (Jan. 8) rings in the new year prior to the start of MACCC play at Northwest Mississippi (Jan. 12).   

Guided by 11^th-year head men's basketball coach Billy Begley, the EMCC Lions are scheduled to play NJCAA Region 23 foe Baton Rouge Community College in their season opener on Friday afternoon (3 p.m. CT) and then take on Alabama-based Southern Union State CC the next day also at 3 p.m. CT.

Begley's EMCC men's team welcomes back five returners from last year's squad, headlined by sophomore standout DeAndre Lewis, who earned All-MACCC honorable mention recognition a season ago as a freshman after averaging a team-best 16.7 points per conference contest. A 2023-24 Jackson Clarion-Ledger Preseason Dandy Dozen pick at Canton High School, the 6-foot-5 swingman was listed among JucoRecruiting.com's 2025 Fab 50 Freshmen in the country during the off-season and received an automatic invitation to the prestigious All-American JUCO Showcase Invitational this past summer in Atlanta, Ga.

The Lions also bring back sophomores Josh Brown, who was Lewis' prep teammate at Canton High School, forward Curly Robinson from Forest High School, Starkville's Jackson Redmond, who prepped at Missouri-based Link Academy, as well as third-year swing man Donovan Griffin out of DeSoto Central High School.

The East Mississippi men will look for immediate contributions from a quartet of proven transfers via competitive junior college programs. The Lions welcome out-of-state standouts Diovion Famakinde, a 6-foot-5 guard from Brooklyn, N.Y., who signed with the University at Buffalo out of Hargrave Military Academy before spending last season at Olney Central College in Illinois, and 6-foot-10 post player Ace McKinnie from the state of Florida by way of South Plains College in Texas.

From the Magnolia State prep ranks and with prior MACCC experience, Columbus High School product Jayden Tatum and Raymond High School alum Mekhi Strong have joined the Lions after having improved their games a year ago at Northeast Mississippi and Mississippi Gulf Coast, respectively.

A quintet of talented incoming freshmen for the Lions is comprised of New York natives Maurice Henderson (Bronx) and Jordan Alexander (Buffalo) along with a trio of homegrown Mississippi products consisting of former Columbus High School teammates Wilt Bush and Jace O'Neal as well as Choctaw Central's Zylier Clemons. 

Upon returning from their first of two trips to the state of Florida this calendar year, the EMCC Lions will play at the Northeast Mississippi-hosted Bonner Arnold Classic (Nov. 6-7 vs. South Georgia Tech & Enterprise State). EMCC's lone home action during the month of November will be Nov. 10 versus Holmes in a non-conference contest and Nov. 13 against Wallace Selma. The front end of a home-and-home season series versus Shelton State (Nov. 17 in Tuscaloosa) will precede the Lions' third of four in-season tournaments, Nov. 27-29, at the Bank of Grandin Thanksgiving Classic in Poplar Bluff, Mo. EMCC will take on host Three Rivers College, Wabash Valley and Northeastern Oklahoma A&M on consecutive days to close out the month of November.

The rest of the Lions' non-conference slate will include just four December games, beginning with a Dec. 1 home contest against Shelton State and a Dec. 5 trip to Wallace State-Hanceville. They will then make a return visit to the Sunshine State, Dec. 30-31, to meet Coastal Alabama-North and Calhoun in the Pensacola State-hosted New Year's Classic.

In the new year, the EMCC men will play host to Wallace State-Hanceville, Jan. 6, to complete that home-and-home season series before traveling to Itawamba for a Jan. 8 non-conference contest in advance of tipping off the MACCC slate at Northwest Mississippi on Jan. 12.