East Central sweeps Itawamba to open season

By By Marty Stamper / EMG sports assistant
Nov. 2, 2003
DECATUR East Central Community College opened its 2003-04 basketball season with a pair of wins over Itawamba Community College Saturday afternoon in the Brackeen-Wood Physical Education Building.
The Lady Warriors debuted with a 76-67 win over ICC, while the Warriors completed the sweep with a 67-63 victory over the Indians.
ECCC women 76
Itawamba 67
ECCC scored 16 of the game's final 20 points to take the opener. Down 63-60 with five minutes remaining, the Lady Warriors turned to Lenore Gray, who scored 12 of her game-high 18 points down the stretch.
"With this group, there are so many potential weapons on any given night," Lady Warriors head coach Brad Hodge said. "It's just hard to get the rotations to find out who can step up.
"Fortunately, we had the right group in at the right time. Lenore did an excellent job of closing the game for us. Everybody in that last group did a good job closing out.
"Any win's a good win, but with a team like Itawamba, you know you're in for a fight. You've got to impose your will against their will. We played at their pace for a long time, but we'll take it."
ECCC also got 10 points each from Monique Overstreet and Kotreece Bender, eight from Amanda LaCaze, seven from Britney Burks, and six from Miranda Rosar.
The game was even at 37-37 at halftime.
ICC got 17 points from Shera Edwards, 15 from Michelle Freeman, 12 from Tiffany Garth, and 10 from Lakelvhsa Robinson.
ECCC men 67
Itawamba 63
The Warriors jumped out to a 13-2 lead in the first seven minutes and held a 32-27 halftime lead despite letting the Indians go on a 5-0 run in the final 10 seconds of the half.
ICC took a 35-33 lead with 18:29 to go on a basket by Mike Sampson.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Jamaal Martin put ECCC up 46-39 with 13:08 remaining.
The Indians closed to within 52-50 on a putback by Greg Sorrell, but a 3-pointer from Dewayne Hughes gave ECCC a 58-50 advantage with 5:43 to play.
The Indians got to within three points on two occasions, the last coming on a 3-pointer from Reggie Gunn with 1:08 left, but the Warriors successfully fended off the comeback bid.
"Any 'W' is a good 'W' for anybody," ECCC head coach Bill Smith said. "It was a typical first game with a lot of mental mistakes and a lot of turnovers, but I thought my guys hustled real hard and hit some key free throws at the end.
"We gave away way too many offensive rebounds, but for the first game, I thought we played fairly decent."
Hughes hit five treys to lead ECCC with 17 points. Martin scored 12, Al Willis had 10, and Neil Tadlock and Tellas Burnside added nine each.
Gunn led ICC with 16 points. David Moore had eight.