GOODMAN – Another early double-digit deficit marked a second straight one-point loss for the East Mississippi Community College men's basketball team, as the Lions dropped a hard-fought 75-74 road decision to the Holmes Bulldogs during Thursday night's MACJC North Division hoops action played at Frank Branch Coliseum. In the women's contest, the visiting Lady Lions went scoreless for the final 2:20 of their 61-57 road setback to the Lady Bulldogs.
Just two days removed from their tough-luck 58-57 home loss to East Central in which they fought back from a 26-11 deficit, the Lions found themselves in the same predicament against a hot-shooting Holmes club. This time, EMCC fell behind 20-6 before battling back to take a halftime lead. Ignited by a Robert Davis Jr. three-point play and ensuing back-to-back 3-pointers from Terryonte Thomas, a 12-0 spurt by the visitors late in the half gave them their first lead of the game and propelled the Lions to a 31-27 halftime advantage.
With sophomore guard Dewayne Cox scoring seven of his 10 points during the opening minutes of the second stanza, EMCC extended its lead to eight points (38-30). Later in the half with the scored tied at 44-all, Holmes' Czar Perry single-handedly put the Bulldogs on his back during a sensational second-half shooting performance. The Northwestern State (La.) transfer drilled 5-of-6 shots from beyond the three-point arc after halftime en route to pumping in 26 second-half points.
Despite Perry's second-half heroics, the Lions hung tough by matching the Bulldogs during a three-point shooting duel midway through the half. With three minutes left in the game, EMCC scored six unanswered points to pull to within a single point (70-69) by the 1:52 mark. Perry then came through at the charity stripe by hitting three clutch free throws after getting fouled on the perimeter with the shot clock winding down.
Markedric Bell's basket cut the deficit in half (73-71) entering the final minute of play. After the two teams traded empty possessions, Holmes' Kassim Nicholson made it a two-possession game by nailing a pair of charity tosses with 15.3 seconds remaining on the game clock. Davis kept the visitors in the game by promptly drilling a 3-pointer on a feed from Cox with 11.3 ticks left. Nicholson couldn't convert on the front end of his subsequent 1-and-1 opportunity, but the Lions weren't able to get a decent look at the basket during the waning seconds of the nail-biter.
In falling to 7-6 overall and 1-1 in division play following the week's tandem of single-point setbacks, Coach Billy Begley's EMCC Lions were led by Davis and Bell with 19 and 17 points, respectively, against Holmes. Bell, a Starkville product, added 10 rebounds to record his third career double-double. Cox and Thomas followed with 10 points each.
The Bulldogs improved to 9-3 overall in their division opener behind Perry's game-high 37 points. The Arkansas native connected on 14-of-21 shots from the field, including 6-of-9 accuracy from behind the three-point line. Tanorrio Ransburgh and Nicholson contributed 14 and 12 points, respectively, in the winning effort.
David Rosinski | Sports Information Director
East Mississippi Community College