JACKSON AND PELLISSIPPI ADVANCE IN REGION TOURNEY

The men's teams finish out the first day of play in the TCCAA/NJCAA Region VII Tournament as Jackson State and Motlow State put on a high scoring show in the first game with Jackson pulling out a 114-103 victory.  With the win, they will play top seeded Columbia State in the first game in Sunday's quarterfinals.  In the second game, Pellissippi State staved off a resilient Cleveland State to prevail 63-58.  With the win, Pellissippi will face Volunteer in the third quarterfinal of the day on Sunday. 

In the first game of the evening, Jackson and Motlow came out running, trading baskets for most of the first twenty minutes.  Jackson would slowly pull away at the end ands lead by 11, 59-48, at the half. Jackson would control that lead for most of the second half as they would enjoy their biggest lead at the 6:45 mark of the seond half at 17 points.  

Jackson would see six players reach double figures led by Jamarion Harvey with 25 points.  jerry Taylor would finish next with 22 followed by Rodgerick  Robinson and Eluah Lussier with 19 and 18.  Both Alandre Murphy and Jamarion Anderson finished with 11 points.  Robinson and Lussier would each finish witrh a team high nine rebounds.  Harvey would lead with six assists with Robinson, Murphy, and Taylor eaching finishing with four apiece.  Anfernee Hanna would lead a quartet of scorers in double digits for Motlow with 36 points.  Tristin Fleming would finish with 25, Azavier with 11, and Dexter Lewis with 10.  Hanna would also lead the team with nine rebounds.  Lewis would have five assisats with Zanders, Hanna, and Nathan Dillingham ech dishing out four.

The second game saw Pellissippi jump out on Cleveland and held a 32-30 lead at the break as Cleveland closed the gap at the end of the half.  The second half saw Pellissippi stretch a lead, but Cleveland came back to take a quick lead at the mid mark of the half.  As the contest winded down, Cleveland missed several opportiunities to tie the contest, but fell short at the end.  

For the Panthers, they had 3 players reach double fignures with Deshun Payton finishing with 17.  Jonathan Caicedo and Rodigue Muntu finished with 11 and 10.  Payton led the squad with nine rebounds and three steals. Tavion Pride had five assists.  The Cougars had two players reach double figures.  Josiah Marsh had 15 and Jeremiah Hayes finished with 12 points.  Marsh had eight rebounds while Allaric Hudson had three assists.  Marsh finished with two steals.