November 4, 2022
The East Central Community College Warriors moved to 2-0 on the year with a dominating 98-72 victory over William Carey JV on Thursday, Nov. 3. The Warriors had an offensive explosion in the second half as the team poured in 62 points in the final 20 minutes of play.
The contest was tight for the first seven minutes of action as the Warriors tried to find their offensive footing, but several trips to the free throw line kept ECCC in contention. With 13 minutes remaining in the half, the Warriors went up 10-9 on a trip to the line from Tyndrious Daniels and maintained that lead to the final buzzer. A basket from Julius Ellerbe and pair of free throws from Isaiah Williams grew the ECCC lead to five points, 17-12, later in the half and gave the Warriors some breathing room on the offensive end of the court.
Late in the first half, David Berry rattled home a big three-pointer and gave the Warriors momentum heading into the locker room. At the break, the lead had grown to nine, 36-27.
In the second half, the Warriors came out firing on all cylinders. ECCC strung together numerous 6-0 scoring runs that came from solid defensive play and defensive rebounds. With 13:06 on the clock, ECCC's Tai'Reon Joseph made three straight baskets, a pair of huge dunks and a layup, before Christopher Keys nailed a deep-ball to cap off a 9-0 scoring burst that took place in less than one minute. With just 10 minutes left in the game, ECCC had grown the lead to 31, 77-46. The momentum, and the Warrior fans in Brackeen-Wood Gymnasium, stayed with ECCC for the final minutes as the team continued to force turnovers and score in transition after defensive rebounds.
Keys and Joseph finished the night with 21 points each, while Ellerbe picked up his second straight triple-double with 13 points, 16 rebounds, and 10 assists. Keys hauled in 12 boards for a double-double. Berry finished with 14 points on the night, while Christian Freeze came off the bench to score 11.
As a team, the Warriors shot 42 percent from the floor (35-of-83) and 25 percent from three-point range (8-of-32). The Warriors won the rebound battle with 56 rebounds to the Crusaders' 35 and scored 24 points off turnovers to just six from William Carey.
The Warriors are on the road for the first time next week as the team travels to Booneville on Monday, Nov. 7, to take on the Northeast Mississippi Community College Tigers at 6 p.m. The contest will not count as a MACCC matchup as conference play will not begin until the spring semester. Fans will be able to watch the game live at nemcctv.com/black.
