By Staff
SQUEEZED n East Central's Alberta Norman gets a rebound against Gulf Coast's Felecia Spivery (44) and Nykesha Carter (23) Thursday night during the Lady Warriors' 95-76 win. Photo by Paula Merritt/The Meridian Star.
By Marty Stamper/The Meridian Star
Fri., Jan. 26, 2001
DECATUR The Lady Warriors of East Central Community College used the old 1-2 punch of Margo Porter and Nicole Cox for 54 points in taking a 95-76 South Division win over Gulf Coast Thursday night.
The ECCC men lost 89-84 to the Bulldogs.
ECCC women 95, Gulf Coast 76: The Lady Warriors made 36 of their 55 free throws to knock off Gulf Coast in a physical battle that saw 59 fouls called and a pair of ejections on the visitors.
The Lady Warriors led 30-15 midway through the first half only to have Gulf Coast claw to within 44-41 on two free throws by Catryna Martin with 1:33 left before halftime.
ECCC, which entered the game ranked No. 18 in this week's NJCAA poll, led 49-43 at the break and had been called for 15 fouls to 11 for Gulf Coast. Porter had 17 points at the break for the Lady Warriors, while Cox had scored 13.
After the Lady Bulldogs closed to within 49-45 early in the second half, the Lady Warriors went on a 16-0 run to go up 66-45. During that four-minute span, Gulf Coast coach Greg Holmes received a technical foul and was later seen waving a white towel and looking at the ECCC bench repeatedly saying, "I give."
Shortly after, Lady Bulldog Felicia Gray received a technical foul and was ejected for elbowing referee Carl Hathorn.
After the Lady Bulldogs finally broke the drought with a basket at the 15:17 mark, Holmes received his second technical and was ejected with 14:50 remaining.
The tempo of the game had a lot to do with Gulf Coast's point production.
Porter led ECCC with 29 points, including an 11-of-12 showing at the free-throw line. Cox added 25 points. Nikki Lacour scored 12, Lori Cumberland had seven, and Alberta Norman and Trelisa Eichelberger both had six. Cumberland, Lacour, and Norman each had seven rebounds as the Lady Warriors improved to 6-1 in the division and 15-3 overall.
The Lady Warriors are off until next Thursday when they travel to league-leading Copiah-Lincoln.
Gulf Coast (1-6, 11-6) got 21 points from Shanel Handy and 11 from Gray. The Lady Bulldogs were 20-of-30 at the free-throw line and were called for 34 fouls.
Gulf Coast men 89, ECCC 84: The Warriors trailed 44-39 at halftime and found themselves staring at a 60-48 deficit after Bulldog 6-foot-11 center Andriy Sukhotin scored an easy two points on an inbounds play following an intentional foul on ECCC's Winfred Craig just over five minutes into the second half.
Nineteen seconds later, ECCC's Eric Scott and Gulf Coast's Sukhotin were both ejected for flagrant fouls.
The Warriors fought to within five points on three occasions and got to within four (74-70) on a free throw from Craig with 5:25 to go, but the Bulldogs went on a 5-0 run over the next 80 seconds to take a 79-70 lead.
The Warriors scrapped back to within three when a basket by Chris Webb trimmed the Gulf Coast lead to 85-82 with 44 seconds left.
Two free throws from 6-foot-10 center Nerijus Lisauskas gave the Bulldogs a five-point cushion with 26 seconds left.
ECCC fell to 1-6 in the division and 9-10 overall. The Warriors got 23 points from James Denson, 16 from Brett Augusta, 15 from Craig, nine from Webb, and eight from Maurice English.
Gulf Coast (6-1, 15-4) got 23 points from Freeman Taylor, 21 from Lisauskas, 18 from Marquez Moultrie, and 13 from Algeno Bostic.