Warriors knock off Jones
By By Marty Stamper / EMG sports assistant
Jan. 24, 2003
DECATUR – The East Central Community College Warriors are having a strange venture through the MACJC South Division this winter, beating the teams at the top of the standings and losing to many of those near the bottom.
In their latest outing, the Warriors knocked off highly-regarded Jones 62-60 Thursday as a last-second shot by JCJC's McKinley Bethea failed to connect and ECCC's Demario Qualls claimed the rebound as time ran out.
Qualls erased a 56-55 deficit when he converted a three-point play with 1:05 left to put ECCC up 58-56. Donzel Crenshaw then came up with a steal and hit Qualls for a layup and a 60-56 advantage.
Lee J. Kirkpatrick scored on a tip in for Jones with just under 20 seconds showing, but ECCC's Corey Hornsby countered with a pair of free throws with 16.6 seconds left for a 62-58 lead.
Marcus Johnson's layup pulled the Bobcats back to within two at 62-60 with 11.2 seconds to go and Qualls missed the front end of a one-and-one to give Jones one final shot at a tie or overtime.
Hornsby led ECCC, which improved to 4-2 in the South Division, with 17 points. Qualls had 14, Brandon Mason 13, and Crenshaw 10. Hornsby also had eight rebounds. Mason added seven boards.
The Warriors had wasted a five-point lead with four minutes to go earlier in the week at Copiah-Lincoln, eventually losing in overtime to a team that came in 0-4 in league play.
Jones (10-6, 4-2) got 16 points from Johnson, 10 each from Kirkpatrick and Lafayette Nelson, and eight from Bethea. Nelson had a team-high nine rebounds. Timothy Broomfield had seven.
ECCC women 79
Jones 65
Despite the 14-point win, the Lady Warriors didn't pull away until the game's final seven minutes. ECCC led 60-56 with 7:08 remaining, but went on a 10-3 run over the next three minutes and nine seconds to go up 70-59.
After Jones got a pair of free throws, ECCC went on a 7-0 run to seal the win and improve to 10-6 overall and 4-2 in the division.
ECCC's bench outscored Jones 28-11 as the Lady Bobcats had only eight players dressed out. It wasn't necessarily ECCC's strategy to wear Jones down.
ECCC got 16 points from Tamekia Foley, 12 from Britney Burks, 11 each from Ebone'e Leverette and Lenore Gray, 10 from Monique Overstreet, and seven each from Kimyatta Viverette and Miranda Rosar. Viverette had seven rebounds with Rosar and Leverette both having six.
Jones (1-13, 1-5) got 19 points from Latoria Keyes, 11 each from Thelma Cooper and Sharon Pendarvis, and nine each from Colette Bartee and Marquita Smith. Cooper had eight rebounds with Bartee and Smith both getting seven.
ECCC hosts Gulf Coast Monday night.
