Lady Eagles win; MCC men fall

By By Robby Atkinson/Special to The Star
Jan. 20, 2002
The sixth-ranked Meridian Community College Lady Eagles used an impressive scoring run and a great defense to take a 92-81 victory over Southwest Tennessee and up their record to 17-1.
The MCC men were not as fortunate in the doubleheader as the Eagles dropped a hard-fought 98-88 decision to the Saluqis.
The Lady Saluquis started off great by getting a three-pointer from Christy Craig and give Southwest an early 5-4 lead.
The Lady Eagles turned the volume up on offense as Genice Terry led the Lady Eagles back moments later on a pair of baskets to tie the contest 10-10.
The Lady Saluquis answered the comeback with a three-point field goal by Torre Thomas as Southwest regained the lead by three points with 13:19 left in the opening half.
Terry once again came up big for the Lady Eagles with a basket and Tijwana Collins followed with a basket as well to tie the game once again. After an abundance of turnovers by both squads, Thomas drained another three-pointer to give Southwest the lead again at 18-15 with 12:04 left until the halftime break. The Lady Saluqis got a steal and a basket from Latoshia Bailey to extend the lead to 20-15.
The Lady Eagles came storming back behind some great bench play from Ericka Starks and Eva Lockhart to cut into the Lady Saluqis' lead and make the score 23-22 with 9:41 left in the first half. Lockhart came right back and recorded a steal and canned a basket to give Meridian the lead at 24-23 with 8:01 left in the half.
The Lady Eagles rode the great shooting of Cantea Brown and Terry to a slim 48-46 lead at the halftime intermission.
The Lady Eagles had nothing but a tremendous second half of action by going on a 16-0 run midway in the second half to lead Southwest 69-53. The Lady Saluqis finally ended the run on a basket by LaShanda Danner and the visitors began to mount some offense.
One spark wouldn't be enough as the Lady Eagles cruised to a 92-81 lead behind the great full-court press in the second half.
Terry had a great night for MCC with 20 points and Brown had 16. Monique Horner scored 13, Felicia Washington added 11, Nikki Yarbrough 10, and Starks nine.
Craig led the Lady Saluqis with 18 points. Southwest dropped to 8-9 on the season.
MCC returns to action Tuesday against Northeast Mississippi in the Ivy Sports Center at MCC.
SW Tennessee 98
Meridian (men) 88
The MCC men led 58-50 at halftime, but the Saluqis stormed back to take the 10-point win over the Eagles.
MCC had a great first half and things were looking good for the Eagles. MCC got off to a great start behind a pair of baskets from Sammie Cole to get MCC on the right track. The Eagles led by as much as 10 points in the first half on several big shots from Victor Temple and Cole.
The high point for the Eagles came on a 10-0 run led by a pair of three-pointers by Cole as MCC had a commanding 40-22 lead with 6:44 left in the first half.
Southwest slowly came creeping back behind some great shooting from the free-throw line and trailed the Eagles 58-50 at the end of the first half.
The Saluqis enjoyed a great run to open up the second half and take a 59-58 lead on a pair of baskets from Melvin Coleman with 17:26 left in the contest. From that point it was all downhill as Meridian dropped to 9-10 with the 10-point loss.
Cole had 30 points to lead the Eagles and Robert Ivy had 18 points. Tavares Childs scored nine with Derrick Houston and Joey Wade both adding eight.
Coleman had 17 points in the big road win for Southwest Tennessee as the Saluquis improved to 10-7. Cortez Stigger added 17 points.

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