Lady Lions return to game action by falling 78-46 at Itawamba
Following nearly a month away from game action due to the Christmas and New Year's holidays, the visiting Lady Lions of East Mississippi Community College dropped a 78-46 road decision to the Itawamba Lady Indians during Thursday's non-conference game action played at ICC's Davis Event Center.
FULTON -- Following nearly a month away from game action due to the Christmas and New Year's holidays, the visiting Lady Lions of East Mississippi Community College dropped a 78-46 road decision to the Itawamba Lady Indians during Thursday's non-conference game action played at ICC's Davis Event Center.
Itawamba jumped out to a double-digit lead in the first quarter before outscoring the Lady Lions, 20-6, during the second quarter to mount a 24-point advantage (38-14) by the halftime break.
The visitors, who hadn't seen game action since Dec. 11, played the reigning NJCAA Region 23 women's champions much closer during the second half of play. Led by Dukiaha Jones' 10 second-half points, the EMCC women battled the Lady Indians to within four points during each of the final two quarters of play.
Jones, a reigning All-MACCC second-team performer out of West Point, led the Lady Lions with 12 points for the contest. Ariana Crimm followed with seven points for EMCC.
Itawamba's Tootie Lockett paced all game scorers with 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field while also grabbing 10 rebounds. Starr Amos followed with 13 points on 6-of-9 accuracy, while I'Xana Winters and Carlie Brock added 12 points each for the Lady Indians.
Coach Isaiah Butler's 3-8 EMCC Lady Lions will tip off conference play by traveling to Senatobia to take on Northwest Mississippi on Monday (Jan. 12) before playing host to Copiah-Lincoln on Thursday (Jan. 15) at Keyes T. Currie Coliseum on the Scooba campus.