January 25, 2022
It was a tale of two halves for the East Central Lady Warriors on Monday night, January 24, as ECCC fell to the Lady Rangers of Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia, 83-69. The Lady Warriors dropped to 7-7 on the year and 3-4 in MACCC play and NWCC improved to 10-7, 4-4.
Both squads were on the scoreboard early and often Monday night, but a 7-0 ECCC run in the opening minutes erased an early 4-0 NWCC advantage and set the tone for the first half for the Lady Warriors. ECCC would build on that lead to an eventual nine-point, 15-6 advantage later in the frame. Northwest hit back and whittled the lead back down to five, but strong free-throw shooting from Sylvia Jones (Brighton, Tenn.) and a big three-pointer from Faith Guy (Enterprise) quickly put ECCC back in front, this time by double-digits, 20-10. The Lady Rangers grabbed some free throws to close out the frame trailing seven, 20-13.
The second quarter saw the Lady Warriors play strong basketball on both ends of the floor to maintain the lead. ECCC mirrored the opening 10 minutes of play with another 20-point frame in the second while holding the Lady Rangers to 19. The back-and-forth action, and a blistering 50 percent shooting performance, allowed the Lady Warriors to take their eight-point, 40-32, advantage into the half.
A big third quarter from Northwest was the difference-maker in the contests as the pendulum of momentum and the hot hand swung into the Lady Rangers' favor. A 16-3 scoring burst from NWCC erased the Lady Warrior lead midway through the third. The Lady Warriors never relented and battled back in the final five minutes of the frame, but trailed by two, 61-59, going into the fourth.
NWCC secured the win in the opening minutes of the fourth as the lead grew to double-digits. The Lady Warriors hung around and continued to attack the basket and tried their best to cool off the nearly 50 percent shooting from the Lady Rangers, but it just was not enough as NWCC grabbed an 83-69 victory.
Jones and Mirial Cannon (Madison), who came in off the bench, led the Lady Warriors in scoring with 11 points each, while Myeisha Scott (Jackson) posted yet another double-digit scoring performance with 10 points. Scott led the Lady Warriors on the glass with eight rebounds. NWCC was led by Kolten Blakeney who posted 25 points and 24 rebounds. Tierra Trotter also finished with 20 points.
The loss snaps a three-game winning streak for East Central, but the Lady Warriors look to bounce back with a home contest against the Southwest Mississippi Community College Lady Bears (11-5, 6-1) this Thursday, January 27, at 6 p.m. That game can be seen live at www.eccclive.com/gold.
