No. 23 Lions continue to roll in MACCC play

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The No. 23 Lions of East Mississippi Community College won for the fifth straight time by posting a decisive 69-51 home victory over Meridian Community College during Thursday’s MACCC men’s basketball action played at Keyes T. Currie Coliseum.

The home-standing Lions grabbed the early momentum with a 10-2 lead after Jakorie Smith’s back-to-back three-pointers were followed by a Blake Butler slam coming off a Smith steal and assist. The visitors answered shortly thereafter with eight straight points to knot the score at 12-12.

From that point on, EMCC owned the advantage the rest of the way. A 7-0 run capped by another Smith trey midway through the opening half put the Lions in front, 23-15, with eight minutes remaining until intermission.

A pair of baskets by Brandon Ellington keyed a 6-0 Meridian spurt late in the half that narrowed the gap to a single point (25-24). EMCC responded by scoring nine of the last 11 points before halftime, including a put-back basket and a three-pointer by Nick Walker, to take a 34-26 lead into the locker room.

The Lions continued to build on the lead as the second stanza progressed. Danny Washington’s three-pointer four minutes into the half gave EMCC a double-digit lead it would maintain the rest of the contest. Midway through the half, the Eagles cut the deficit to 13 points on a couple of occasions before Butler hit consecutive corner treys to extend the Lions’ advantage to 19 points (60-41) by the 8:04 mark.

Down the stretch, another 7-0 EMCC surge consisting of a Butler drive to the rim sandwiched between a Smith put-back of his own miss and his fourth three-pointer of the game lengthened the margin to 24 points (67-43) with 4:26 left on the game clock.

The Smith/Butler tandem combined to score 42 of EMCC’s 69 points and jointly hit six of the team’s nine made three-pointers on the evening. Smith connected on his first four shot attempts of the game, including a trio of treys, to score 15 of his game-high 26 points in the first half. Butler was successful on his last five field goal tries, including back-to-back three-pointers, to finish with a dozen second-half points and 16 for the game.

On Dec. 6 the Lions claimed a hard-earned 66-60 home victory over Southwest Mississippi during. In women’s play, the EMCC Lady Lions dropped a 56-36 road decision to Southwest’s Lady Bears.

After the Bears pulled to within six points (16-10), EMCC scored 10 unanswered points to take a 26-10 lead on Danny Washington’s three-point play with 7:43 remaining in the opening half.

Following intermission, the Lions responded to Zach Shugars’ back-to-back treys with a 10-2 run that increased their lead to double digits (50-40) midway through the second stanza. Though never able to grab the lead in the contest, the Bears promptly ran off 10 straight points to produce the game’s only tie (52-52) with 5:26 left in the game.

EMCC temporarily regained control of the game with a Jakorie Smith three-point play followed by Blake Butler’s left-handed finish at the rim. A pair of Washington free throws were sandwiched between Southwest three-pointers from Lacey and Trent Coleman to make it a one-point game (59-58) with 2:56 remaining in the contest.

Following an EMCC timeout, the Lions benefitted from a broken play perhaps at the most opportune time of the game. After Butler lost control of the ball on his way to the basket, the loose ball ended up in the hands of Smith, who barely beat the shot clock on a three-point make in front of his own bench to give EMCC a 62-58 lead with






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