By By Austin Bishop/EMG regional sports director
Mar. 2, 2002
Fresh off a split of two games in the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges State Tournament, the Lady Warriors of East Central Community College will take on Meridian Community College in the first round of the Region 23 Basketball Tournament on Monday.
The two teams who faced off earlier in the year at MCC's Ivy Sports Center, will play at 6 p.m. at A.E. Wood Coliseum on the campus of Mississippi College in Clinton.
Other first-round games on Monday in the women's bracket of the eight-team, single-elimination tournament have Itawamba and Pearl River meeting at noon and Southwest and Northeast playing at 2 p.m. The 8 p.m. game has Copiah-Lincoln playing Northwest.
Jones Junior College (13-10) is the only one of the four area community colleges to make the men's eight-team field. JCJC takes on Holmes Community College at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. The men's day of action begins at noon when Delgado Community College plays Itawamba, followed by the 2 p.m. game between Northwest and Gulf Coast. The 8 p.m. game has Bossier Parish taking on Southwest.
Wednesday's action begins with a women's semifinal contest at noon between the MCC-East Central winner and the Southwest-Northeast winner.
The 2 p.m. men's game has the Holmes-Jones men's winner taking on the Delgado-ICC winner. The 8 p.m. men's semifinal will be between the Northwest-Gulf Coast winner and the Bossier-Southwest winner.
The 6 p.m. women's semifinal will be between the winner of the Co-Lin-Northwest game and the ICC-Pearl River winner. The women's finals will tip off at 6 p.m. on Thursday, followed by the men's finals at 8 p.m.
ECCC (14-10) and Meridian (28-2) played earlier in the year, with the Lady Eagles taking a 96-74 win at the Ivy Sports Center.
MCC head coach Hilary Allen said that previous game probably wouldn't have a lot to do with Monday's outcome.
ECCC won the Region 23 title last season, while MCC won the two previous region tournaments.
In the MACJC State Tournament at ICC in Fulton, the Lady Warriors knocked off the No. 1 North seed Northeast by a score of 70-67, before falling to Southwest 62-53 in the semifinals.
Co-Lin (23-2) won the state title on Thursday with a 70-65 win over Southwest. The Holmes men beat 17-8 Northwest 96-89 for the men's title.
In the win over Northeast, the Lady Warriors scored the last five points of the game, including a three-pointer by Lori Cumberland to tie the game and a two free throws by Shelly Giddings to ice the win. The women's Region 23 winner will advance to the NJCAA Women's National Tournament in Salina, Kan., while the men's winner will head to Hutchinson, Kan., for the NJCAA Men's National Tournament.