By By Cassie Chance/Special to The Star
Nov. 30, 2001
The East Mississippi Lady Lions entered Thursday night's game with Bevill State Community College in hopes of getting win number two on the year. Ironically, the Lady Lions' only win on the year came against Bevill State on November 20th when EMCC dropped the Lady Bears 79-77 in overtime.
However, on Thursday East Mississippi would have to repeat that success without the help of the team's second leading scorer and starting freshman guard, Allison Power. Power's wrist was sprained in Tuesday's game at Jones and an MRI will be preformed next week to determine to prolonged extent of the injury.
The absence proved to be costly as Bevill State used a second half rally to force the game in overtime. In overtime, Bevill took an 83-72 victory.
Bevill State coach Dick Anderson was proud of his team's effort. "It was a good win for us. We've had a lot of injuries, and I was real proud of our team's overtime performance," Anderson said.
East Mississippi opened the game with baskets by freshman Margaret McClure and Northeast Lauderdale product Dorecious Powe as the Lady Lions jumped out to an early 17-10 lead before Bevill State pulled within one with 11:07 remaining in the first half.
East Mississippi kept their lead by going on 10-0 run before Shanna Bryant nailed a three and T'ola Winston added key baskets. However, it wasn't enough as the Lady Lions took a 35-27 lead into the locker room at the intermission.
After the break, the Lady Bears came back to take the lead with 12:56 left in the game when Bryant hit a jumper. East Mississippi then answered by regaining their lead with help from Candace Spires, Katrina Barr, and Constance Logan. With 10:57 remaining in the game, Bevill State used a timeout to regroup.
After the timeout, Bevill rallied to tie the game with less than nine minutes remaining. EMCC kept the lead on the scoreboard until Anna Yates nailed a three pointer with 3:34 left in the game to once again tie the game.
In the last three minutes, the lead swapped back and forth and with 12.3 seconds left, Keyanna West hit the game-tying jumper for Bevill State to send the game into overtime.
In overtime, the Lady Bears outscored EMCC 17-6 to take the 83-72 win.
Marion Institute 79
East Mississippi 76
After controlling the boards for much of the night, the East Mississippi Lions were unable to hang on to a late lead to fight off the visiting Tigers from the Marion Military Institute.
Marion opened the game on a strong note by outscoring East Mississippi 17-9 in the opening five minutes. However, the Lions fought back to pull within four with 9:56 left in the half. With 8:35 to go before the break, East Mississippi called a timeout.
After the timeout, EMCC outscored Marion 14-6 to take a slim 41-39 lead at halftime.
After the break, the lead switched hands 10 ten times. With 13:00 minutes remaining in the game, Johnny Prince pulled Marion even with the Lions. However, EMCC regained the lead with a jumper by Davarrius Hariston. With 10:09 left it looked as if the Lions had wrapped up their second win on the season, but in the last nine minutes Marion rallied.
Marion sealed their 79-76 victory.
with 48 seconds remaining when Kendrick Johnson hit a jumper.