By By Marty Stamper / EMG sports assistant
Dec. 6, 2002
DECATUR East Central Community College's Warriors spotted Pearl River a 10-point lead in the first four minutes of their MACJC South Division contest Thursday night before battling back to take an 81-77 win in the Brackeen-Wood Physical Education Building.
The Lady Warriors posted a 65-56 victory in the opener.
Both ECCC teams are off until after the Christmas break.
ECCC men 81
Pearl River 77
The Warriors trailed 14-4 four minutes into their game and were still down by 10 at 36-26 before they went on a 17-0 tear to claim a 43-36 lead with 2:38 to go in the first half. In the run were two layups and a dunk by Brandon Mason, a couple of baskets including a dunk by Corey Hornsby, a steal and a dunk by Donzel Crenshaw, and a driving layup to go with a 3-pointer by Demario Qualls.
ECCC took a 45-44 lead into halftime.
The Warriors kept a two to four-point edge until the Wildcats pulled even at 57-57 with 13:35 remaining.
Back-to-back baskets by Desmond Jones gave ECCC a 63-61 lead with 10:30 to go.
Pearl River rallied to take a 75-71 lead with 3:53 to play, but the Warriors scored the next eight points to go up 79-75 with 1:03 left. Qualls and Crenshaw each hit a 3-pointer as the Warriors took the lead for good as they improved to 6-4 overall and 1-0 in the division.
ECCC got 25 points from Hornsby, 14 each from Qualls and Crenshaw, 10 from Mason, and eight from Jones.
Pearl River, 8-2 and 0-1, got 24 points from Yandell Brown, 17 from Ray Selvage, and 10 from Keesler Johnson.
ECCC women 65
Pearl River 56
The Lady Warriors scored eight of the last nine points of the first half to take a 36-30 lead into intermission and opened the second half with a basket by Lenore Gray to go up 38-30.
ECCC then went the next six minutes, 28 seconds without scoring as Pearl River eased out to a 40-38 lead on back-to-back steals and layups by Audosha Kelley and Samantha Flennory in a five-second span.
Pearl River held a 50-49 lead with 6:44 remaining when ECCC put together a 12-2 run to take control of the game. During the run, Rita Birden scored three baskets, while Tamekia Foley had one and hit Gray underneath the basket for another and a 61-52 lead with 2:44 to go.
ECCC, 7-3 overall and 1-0 in the division, got 15 points from Birden, 14 apiece from Gray and Foley, and seven from Monica Overstreet.
Pearl River got 12 points apiece from Kelley and Stephanie Gonzales and 10 from Jansai Newsom.