By By Marty Stamper/staff writer
Jan. 18, 2002
DECATUR If the East Central Community College Warriors would have played the first seven minutes anywhere near the way they did the final 38, they would have had little trouble beating Southwest Mississippi Community College Thursday.
Southwest jumped out to a 22-5 lead over the first seven minutes of the game before having to go to overtime to take an 82-80 victory.
ECCC fell to 4-8 overall and 0-3 in the MACJC South Division. Southwest improved to 11-2 overall and 2-1 in the division.
Southwest won the women's game 64-55 after trailing by nine at halftime.
The ECCC men got to within 36-26 with 3:31 remaining in the first half only to go into halftime with a 44-29 deficit.
The Warriors scored nine-of-11 points to close to within 52-50 with 11 minutes to play on a basket from James Denson.
The visiting Bears pulled back out to a 64-52 advantage on a basket by Brent Butler with 7:37 showing in regulation.
But the Warriors staged another comeback and got to within 72-69 with 1:43 on the second half clock when Corey Hornsby went 5-of-5 at the free-throw line over a 31-second span.
Two free throws by Brandon Griffin put Southwest up by four (74-70) with 1:01 left, but Hornsby made two baskets in the final 56 seconds to force overtime at 74-74. His tying basket came on a 10-foot baseline floater with 8.1 seconds left.
Southwest scored the first four points in overtime only to have ECCC pull even at 78-78 on a pair of free throws by Kevin Bobbitt with 2:12 to go.
Griffin's basket with 1:53 showing gave the Bears an 80-78 lead, but Denson evened the contest with a jumper 20 seconds later.
A lay-in by Wesley Haynes with 1:07 remaining turned out to be the game-winning points.
Sam Johnson came up with a loose ball for Southwest only to have his team turn the ball over on a shot-clock violation with 10.1 seconds still to be played.
The Warriors got the ball to Hornsby, who tallied 28 second-half points, but his shot at a game-winning 3-pointer rimmed out as time expired.
Hornsby finished the night with 36 points. He was 13-of-14 at the free-throw line.
ECCC also got 12 points from Denson, 10 from Winfred Craig, and six from Demario Qualls. Griffin led Southwest with 20 points. Johnson scored 14, Haynes and Willie Depron both had 11, and Butler tossed in nine.
ECCC travels to Ellisville to take on Jones on Tuesday.
Southwest women 64
ECCC 55
The Lady Warriors carried a 29-20 lead into halftime before falling apart in the second half to lose their fourth-consecutive game after starting the season 7-1.
It took Southwest less than five minutes in the second half to pull even at 32-32.
A 3-pointer by Nikki LaCour gave ECCC a 35-32 lead with 14:52 left before the Lady Bears eased out to a 43-40 lead at the 11:34 mark.
Lori Cumberland's 3-pointer gave ECCC a 45-43 lead with 10:03 to go and a basket by LaCour made it 47-43 with 9:37 left. Southwest responded by scoring 13 of the next 18 points to go up 56-52 with 4:05 left.
After the Lady Warriors were guilty of a shot-clock violation with 3:09 remaining, Southwest got two free throws from Nakja Downing for a 58-52 at the 2:18 mark.
ECCC got to within 58-54 on a basket by LaCour with 1:08 left before the comeback bid failed.
LaCour led ECCC (7-5 overall, 1-2 South) with 17 points. Christina Ford scored 11 and Tamekia Foley had seven.
The Lady Warriors are down to 10 players for the remainder of the year.
Downing led Southwest (9-3, 2-1) with 22 points. "Once she gets to feeling it, you're in trouble," Hodge said of the 6-foot freshman. "She's probably one of the best I've seen since I've been here."
Traci Forrest and Natasha Booth added nine apiece.