By By Marty Stamper/The Meridian Star
Nov. 20, 2001
DECATUR For the first 10 minutes of their game with Holmes Community College Monday night, the East Central Community College Warriors fared almost as poorly as the Taliban in Kabul in recent days as the Bulldogs were up 25-11 in the ECCC Classic and threatening even more damage.
Unlike the Taliban, however, the Warriors stuck around and eventually posted a 70-65 victory to improve to 2-3.
The Lady Warriors, 4-1, defeated Holmes 77-62 earlier in the day.
The ECCC teams will face Itawamba in tonight's action with the women's game beginning at 6 p.m.
ECCC 70
Holmes 65
Holmes led 25-11 with 10:02 remaining in the first half before the Warriors began to inch their way back into the contest.
Freshman Corey Hornsby from Baton Rouge, La., scored eight of ECCC's last 10 points of the first half as the Warriors closed to within 35-33 by intermission.
After three ties, the Warriors took the lead at 43-42 on a free throw from Jason Richardson with 12:08 left.
The teams were deadlocked three more times before ECCC took the lead for good at 50-49 on a basket from Winfred Craig with 7:22 to go.
Donzel Crenshaw followed Craig's basket with a dunk for a three-point lead.
Holmes got back to within 55-53 on a basket from B.J. Townsend with 6:14 remaining.
A layup by James Denson from a Craig assist gave ECCC a 61-56 edge with 3:24 left and Holmes could get no closer than two points.
Hornsby led ECCC with 18 points. Craig scored 17, while Denson had 10 and Crenshaw and Markeith Brown added eight apiece.
Holmes, 3-3, got 16 points from Townsend, 13 from Greg Tucker, and nine from Jerrick Oliver.
ECCC 77
Holmes 62
The Lady Warriors shook off a sluggish start to the second half to knock off Holmes by 15 points.
The Lady Warriors led by as much as 22 points in the first half and carried a 39-20 advantage into halftime behind 10 points from Belinda Potter, six each from Nikki LaCour and Christina Ford, and five from Melinda Ben.
The Holmes press took its toll on the Lady Warriors to start the second half as they managed just five points over the first 7:27. The Lady Bulldogs had trimmed their deficit to 44-34 at that point.
Tamekia Foley came off the bench to put ECCC up 46-34 with a jumper from the right wing with 12:20 remaining.
A 3-pointer from Ben extended ECCC's lead to 53-37 with 9:53 to play.
Ben hit another 3-pointer with 7:12 left to give the Lady Warriors a 62-41 advantage.
LaCour, the only returning starter from last year's Region 23 championship squad, led ECCC with 15 points.
ECCC also got 13 points apiece from Ford and Ben with Potter tossing in 12 and Becky Killen adding six.
Holmes, 2-4, got 12 points from Monica Lee and nine each from Lakendra Barksdale and Stacy Gary.
Marty Stamper is a sports writer for The Meridian Star. E-mail him at mstamper@themeridianstar.com or call him at 693-1551, ext. 3235.