Second-half burst sparks EMCC's Lady Lions to 71-51 home win over Southwest Mississippi
EMCC's Lady Lions outscored visiting Southwest Mississippi, 50-29, in the second half to claim a dominating 71-51 home victory over the Lady Bears during Thursday's MACCC basketball action played at Keyes T. Currie Coliseum on the Scooba campus.
SCOOBA -- EMCC's Lady Lions outscored visiting Southwest Mississippi, 50-29, in the second half to claim a dominating 71-51 home victory over the Lady Bears during Thursday's MACCC basketball action played at Keyes T. Currie Coliseum on the Scooba campus.
The contest began with a low-scoring first quarter as the Lady Lions and Lady Bears battled to a 10-10 tie through the opening 10 minutes of play. The second quarter featured much of the same with the visitors owning a slight 22-21 edge heading into halftime.
Looking for their first win since a 50-47 non-conference victory at Mississippi Gulf Coast back in mid-November, the Lady Lions started the second half against Southwest with a 9-2 spurt followed shortly thereafter by a 10-0 run to move ahead by double digits late in the third quarter. EMCC outscored Southwest, 25-11, in the quarter to take a 46-33 lead into the final 10 minutes of action.
With sophomore guards Dukiaha Jones and Micaiah Satcher each pouring in 19 points during second-half action, the Lady Lions continued their dominance on both ends of the floor throughout the fourth quarter. Jones collected five of her eight steals in the second half, converting many of her takeaways into fast-break baskets on the way to scoring a game-high 25 points. From the perimeter, Satcher drilled five three-pointers following halftime en route to her career-high, 21-point performance. The tandem's combined 38 second-half points jointly lifted EMCC to a 50-29 advantage during the closing half and ultimately to the 20-point home triumph.
Liberty Hughes added 11 points off the bench in the winning effort, as the Lady Lions halted their 12-game losing skid with their first conference victory of the season.
Coach Isaiah Butler's EMCC Lady Lions (4-14, 1-5 MACCC) will begin the month of February by continuing conference hoops action at Hinds on Monday (Feb. 2) prior to playing host to Mississippi Gulf Coast on Thursday (Feb. 5).
