Lady Lions drop tough 54-51 road decision to Holmes

GOODMAN – East Mississippi Community College's Lions snapped Holmes' 17-game winning streak with a hard-fought 63-53 road victory at Frank Branch Coliseum during Thursday's MACCC men's basketball doubleheader action. The EMCC women dropped a tough 54-51 decision to the Lady Bulldogs to start the evening.

In the women's contest, Holmes used a low-scoring 13-2 second-quarter advantage to grab a 26-16 lead heading into halftime. The Lady Lions were limited to only two made free throws by Leah Wilcher during the second 10 minutes of play.

EMCC's Kennedi McCray helped spark a third-quarter rally, including a 3-pointer, that pulled the visitors even at 30-30, but the Lady Bulldogs closed out the quarter by answering with an 11-2 run to take a 41-32 lead entering the fourth quarter.

The Lady Lions got hot from beyond the 3-point arc midway through the final quarter to reclaim a temporarily lead. Kennedi Wagner's three-point play was followed by her second made 3-point field goal of the quarter and another McCray trey to bring EMCC from a 45-39 deficit to a brief 48-45 lead with around four minutes left in the contest.

The lead then switched hands three more times over the game's final two minutes. After Holmes scored five straight points to move back ahead 50-48, Zarria Shipp's 3-pointer briefly put the visitors back on top 51-50 with 25.8 seconds remaining. The Lady Bulldogs countered with a final go-ahead basket and then forced an EMCC turnover in the post to help seal the narrow three-point win.

McCray and Wagner led EMCC with 10 and nine points, respectively, as the Lady Lions fell to 6-11 overall and 1-4 in MACCC action.

Kiara Shelly and Kamren Edwards topped Holmes (11-10, 4-2 MACCC) with 15 and 11 points, respectively.

Following a quick 10-2 EMCC start with the aid of some early Holmes turnovers, the men's game featured five lead changes and three ties during the opening half of play before the home-standing Bulldogs grabbed a slim 28-27 halftime lead.

The Lions exploded coming out of the break by scoring nine unanswered points to begin the second stanza. Freshman DeAndre Lewis scored 10 of his 13 points, including a pair of timely 3-point shots, during the opening few minutes of the half to propel the visitors to a 39-30 advantage.

After extending the margin to 11 points (46-35) on Jonathan Baker's made trey a few minutes later, EMCC maintained at least a five-point lead for the rest of the contest. The Bulldogs managed to cut the deficit to 56-51 and 58-53 during the final two minutes of play, but untimely turnovers again plagued Holmes coming down the stretch.

Jermaurhiyun Anderson's game-high 16 points paced a quartet of EMCC double-figure scorers, followed by Lewis' 13 points. Josh Brown and Brian Kitenge added 11 and 10 points, respectively, for the Lions, who improved to 9-11 overall and 3-2 in MACCC play. Lewis and Kitenge both approached double-doubles with nine rebounds apiece.

The Bulldogs (17-2, 5-1 MACCC) fell for just the second time on the year and dropped their first conference decision of the season. Holmes was led by Cameron Wallace and Kylan Clark with 13 and 11 points, respectively.

The East Mississippi basketball teams continue conference action with a Monday (Feb. 3) hoops doubleheader versus Jones College on the Scooba campus. A 5:30 p.m. women's game will be followed by a 7:30 p.m. men's contest at EMCC's Keyes T. Currie Coliseum.