By Staff
AROUND THE CORNER – East Mississippi's Tremechie Evans (24) peaks around Jones defense looking for a place to shoot. PHOTO BY CARISA MCCAIN / THE MERIDIAN STAR
By Jeff Byrd / staff writer
Nov. 24, 2002
SCOOBA Payback proved sweet for the Jones Community College Lady Bobcats here Saturday afternoon at East Mississippi's Keyes Currie Coliseum.
Jones won its first game of the season taking advantage of a cold shooting Lady Lion squad for a 76-70 victory. Not only that, but the Jones women also got revenge for an earlier 8-point home loss to these same East Mississippi Lady Lions.
In the mens' game, Jones blew a 19-point lead but then came back with a strong final five minutes to keep the East Mississippi Lions winless on the season with a 68-59 decision.
Jones women 76
East Mississippi 70
Jones won its first game in six tries holding off a late Lady Lion surge to win 76-70.
East Mississippi falls to 3-5 with the loss.
EMCC head coach Dale Peay thought he had an improved team over last year but the Lady Lions didn't show it missing a chance at a win at home against a winless team.
The Lady Lions made just 26 field goals out of 80 attempts for an icy 32.5 percent.
Jones, meanwhile, got big offensive games from Latoria Keyes and Wayne County freshman Kandis Bartee. Keyes fired in 25 points and Bartee added 17 to lead the Lady Bobcats.
The game was tied seven times through the first 16 minutes of play, the last coming at 25-25. Jones then got back-to-back three-pointers from Valarie Lee and Bartee to break out to a 37-31 lead. The Lady Bobcats would not trail again. It was 39-31 at the half.
Two free throws by Felicia Jones followed by baskets from Jones and Keyes to hand the Lady Bobcats a 56-40 advantage.
EMCC began its comeback when Candace Spires and Chaffie Spann hit three-pointers while Darnika Washington added a convention three-point play for a 9-0 run. The spurt made it a 57-49 game.
A basket by Katrina Barr made it 67-61 with five minutes to go. Then came the critical juncture.
East had a shot to get it four but an air ball wasted the chance. Jones then took the lead back to 10 at 71-61 following a putback by Keyes.
With 34 seconds to go, East made one final push. They trailed by nine until a three-pointer by Barr made it 74-68. Following two missed free throws by Jones, Shawnequa Rucker scored to put East within four at 74-70.
Sharon Pendarvis made a back end of a free throw to make it 75-70 with 20.2 seconds left. East could get no closer.
The Lady Lions were led by Barr's 22 points. Yolanda Thomas has 13 and Candace Spires added 11.
Jones men 68
East men 59
Jones led by as many as 19 points (33-14) in the first half but the Lions roared back to make a game of it behind the shooting of Tremechie Evans.
Evans helped fuel the late first half surge that saw the Lions cut the Jones lead down to seven by halftime, 35-28.
A little over 10 minutes into the second half, the Lions grabbed the lead when when Anthony Johnson hit a three-pointer with 9:49 left to put EMCC up 49-48.
But that would be the only Lion lead of the game. Four free throws by Jones point guard Marcus Jones put the Bobcats back ahead to stay at 52-49.
Jones improved to 4-2 with the win. East Mississippi falls to 0-8.
Jones head coach Robert McInnis could only scratch his head on how his young team played.
Lions head coach Clay Armstrong was equally befuddled by his team.
A steal and layup by East's Ferzell Shepherd made it a 54-53 game with 4:32 to play. But that would be the last time the Lions would score until the 48 -second mark.
In between that time, Jones scored the next nine points to go up 63-53 following two free throws by John Gray.
LaFayette Nelson had 20 points to lead Jones. Gray had 14 and Marvin McDonald out of Heidelberg High got nine.
Evans led East Mississippi with 25.