Lady Lions set for regular-season hoops stretch drive

SCOOBA -- EMCC's Lady Lions are looking to their remaining pair of regular-season basketball contests to decide their postseason tournament fate. On the heels of Monday's home loss to Itawamba, EMCC is set to close out the regular season with a Thursday (Feb. 26) trip to Coahoma followed by Monday's (March 2) home matchup with Northeast Mississippi.

The EMCC women presently sit in a three-way tie for 13^th place in the MACCC standings with Mississippi Delta and Hinds at 2-10 in conference play. Following Monday's 56-42 home setback to Itawamba, head coach Isaiah Butler's 5-19 EMCC Lady Lions currently sit just one game behind Southwest Mississippi and two games behind Northeast Mississippi within the women's standings.

The upcoming NJCAA Region 23 Basketball Tournaments will consist of 12-team fields, which will each comprise of the top 11 men's and women's teams from the Mississippi Association of Community Colleges Conference (MACCC) and the men's and women's team champions from the Louisiana Community Colleges Athletic Conference (LCCAC). The top eight MACCC teams and Louisiana champion automatically qualify for tournament play.

Both region tournaments will consist of four rounds played in single-elimination formats. With the top four teams from the men's and women's final regular-season MACCC basketball standings all receiving opening-round byes, the first two rounds of this year's tournaments will be played on the campus sites of the higher seeds on Thursday (March 5) and Saturday (March 7). The separate week-long tournaments are then set to conclude with men's semifinals (March 10) and finals (March 12) as well as the women's semifinals (March 11) and finals (March 13). The semifinal-round games will be hosted by the highest remaining seed in the respective tournaments.

This past Monday, the Lady Lions battled from behind the entire contest against ICC after the visitors jumped out to a 14-1 advantage. After trailing 18-8 following the opening 10 minutes of play, EMCC scored the first six points of the second quarter to pull within four points.

The Lady Lions then cut into Itawamba's 31-20 halftime lead by scoring the first five points of the second stanza on Cenaya Calhoun-Jingles' three-pointer followed by a Liberty Hughes basket. The Lady Indians reclaimed their double-digit advantage by the end of the third quarter and maintained that margin for the remainder of the contest to claim their seventh straight victory during the month of February.

The EMCC women were paced by reigning All-MACCC guard Dukiaha Jones, who scored 12 of her game-high 17 points after halftime while also collecting nine rebounds during the contest.

The Lady Indians were led by Tootie Lockett and Starr Amos with 15 points apiece.