Lady Warriors stay undefeated

The Newton Record

DECATUR December 06, 2007 11:20 am

— It wasn’t easy, but the nationally ranked East Central Community College Lady Warriors kept their unbeaten streak alive in 2006 after claiming a hard-fought 80-74 overtime decision over Mississippi Delta Community College Monday night in the Brackeen-Wood Physical Education Building in Decatur.
The EC women, ranked 11th in the latest JUCO poll, are now 8-0 under third-year head coach Bill Smith, who was somewhat disappointed with his team’s effort but was nevertheless pleased with the outcome.
“We just didn’t have a very good offensive night,” Smith stated following the non-division victory. “They shot the ball real well, and we didn’t play very hard on defense all night. But I’d rather win ugly than lose pretty.”
The Lady Warriors, who trailed 33-27 at the break, went up 68-66 on Mystee Dale’s short jumper with 37 seconds remaining in regulation, only to have Delta tie the contest at 68-68 on two free throws by Jessica Ayers with 15.1 seconds left.
EC had a chance to win the game in regulation but Rashima Jenkins’ shot under the goal with 1.8 seconds became logged between the net and goal, and the subsequent in-bounds pass was stolen, forcing the extra period.
In the extra period, Tanesha Brown drained two quick three-pointers to give EC a 74-68 advantage and a lead it would not relinquish.
“That was big,” Smith said of Brown’s three-pointers to begin the overtime period. “I think that was the only two outside shots we made all night.”
Brown, a Jackson Provine product, was among top scorers with 17 points. EC was led in scoring by Jenkins who pumped in 23 points. Jenkins is a former standout at Airline High School in Bossier City, La. Also scoring were Alisha Matlock, 12, of Carthage; Tawaytha Evans, 11, of Newton; Allison Phillips, five, of Leake Academy; Alisha McAfee, four, of Northwest Rankin; and Sha Coleman of Newton County, Mystee Dale of Choctaw Central, Jordan Patterson of Oak Hill Academy and Chotsani Henderson of Newton, all with two each.
Ayers had 23 points to lead the Lady Trojans, who dropped to 2-7.

Warriors win
In the men’s contest, East Central went on a 24-6 run during the final nine minutes of first-half action and coasted to a 79-68 win over the Trojans.
With the win, the Warriors improved to 5-4 under second year head coach Maurice Bowie. Delta, which fell to 3-6, is led by former ECCC assistant Derrick Fears.
Bowie, who was obviously pleased with the victory, was also glad that everyone on the team got to play.
“Everybody’s happy right now,” said Bowie, a former ECCC basketball standout. “We played a bunch of people and some of those guys have got to get a bunch of experience going into the second half of the season because we’re down to 11 people. It’s going to be tough going into South Division play.”
Darrion Maxtion, a product of Sparkman High School in Harvest, Ala., led EC with 16 points. Also scoring were Marquis Wilson, 15, of Delhi, La.; Josh Luckett, 11, of Carthage; Rod Lofton of Forest and Dre Dickinson of Meridian, 10 each; Des Morales, six, of Lake; Justin Brown, five, of South Leake; and Devarius “Scooter” Walker of Newton County, Marico Jones of Forest and newcomer Maurice Langston of Northeast Lauderdale, two each.
Walter Howard led Delta with 17 points.
EC held a 47-27 advantage at halftime.

2006 finale
ECCC squads close out 2006 competition by traveling to Northeast Mississippi Community College Thursday, Dec. 6. Game times are 6 and 8 p.m. on the Booneville campus. The Lady Warriors and Warriors return to action following the Christmas holidays by taking on Itawamba Community College squads on Thursday, Jan. 3 in Fulton.

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