Friday, February 27, 2004
Pearl River repeats as MACJC champs with 71-60 come-from-behind victory over Hinds

   BOONEVILLE  The Pearl River Wildcats repeated as state men's basketball champions with a come-from-behind 71-60 victory over Hinds in final-round action of the MACJC State Tournament here Thursday at Northeast Mississippi Community College.
   The title marked the sixth in PRCC head coach Richard Mathis' career and his 
fourth in his 13 seasons with the Wildcats.
   "All of them (championships) are sweet, but this one is particularly sweet," Mathis said. "We struggled through the season and Hinds wound up sweeping us in our two regular-season division games. I really didn't know what to expect coming in to this thing, but our guys worked hard and responded...and we repeated as champions."
   Pearl River, fresh off its 85-78 victory over South Division champ and top-seeded Jones Wednesday in the semi-finals, struggled for much of the game. The score was tied 3 times in the first 6 minutes of play before Wildcat center Ray Selvage bucketed a foul shot with 13:50 left in the first half to give PRCC its first lead at 11-10.
   But Hinds' Donald Jones answered the comeback with his first of 5 treys -- all in the first half -- to kick off a Bulldog rally that built Hinds' lead to 10 at the midway point of the first half. Jesse Taylor followed with a 2-pointer, then Jones hit back-to-back treys to make it 21-11.
   PRCC managed to cut Hinds' lead to 5 points 4 times before the intermission, but Jones hit his final trey with 1:40 left then hit a 2 in the final minute to put the Bulldogs back up by 10,  38-28 at the half.
   Hinds grabbed its largest leads of the night when it went up by 15 twice in the opening minutes of the second half. A.J. Oliver's bucket with 14:00 left made it 49-34, but the Wildcats battled back with 32-11 go-ahead run capped by Jonathan Williams' fourth and final trey of the night with 1:35 to make it 62-60. Hinds never recovered from the scoring surge.
   "Jonathan has been our three man up here," Mathis said. "He hit 2 against Holmes in the opener, 4 against Jones in the semis, then 4 more tonight. But I really think it was our defense that gradually got better as the game wore on that made the biggest difference."
   Cole paced PRCC with 16 points (2 treys, 4 rebounds), while Williams added 14 (4 treys, 5 rebounds), Larry Brackins 14 (10 rebounds, 1 trey), Ray Selvage 13 (7 rebounds, 5 blocks), Jacoby Rawls 6, Daryl Cohen 6 (2 steals), and Jason Simmons 2.
   Jones finished with a game-high 23 points -- 19 in the first half -- while Kiki Christmas added 18 ( 1 trey, 5 rebounds), Jesse Taylor 10 (7 rebounds, 1 trey), Adrian Harper 5 (7 rebounds, 1 trey), and Denauldo Bennett and A.J. Oliver, 2 each.
   From the foul line, PRCC hit 60 percent (12 of 20), while HCC hit 50 percent (2 of 4).
   From the field, Pearl River was 26 of 50 (52 percent), including a 7-of-18 (38.9 percent) effort from 3-point range. Hinds was 25 of 57 (43.9 percent) from the field and hit 8 of 23  (34.8 percent) from beyond the arch.
   Mathis has also won a MACJC women's state title at East Mississippi and another men's title at Northeast.
   Hinds swept PRCC during the regular season, including a 95-90 double-overtime victory Jan. 22 in Poplarville, then pounced the Wildcats 55-54 Feb. 12 at Utica. The Wildcats defeated Holmes 90-75 in first-round action, then dropped Jones 85-78 to get into the finals.
   The Bulldogs defeated No. 4-ranked Northwest -- the North's No. 1 seed -- Wednesday to earn its championship round berth.
   In women's action, nationally-ranked East Central (25-3) defeated Jones 73-64 for the women's MACJC title.
   PRCC now eyes the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament that kicks off Monday at Mississippi College in Clinton and concludes Wednesday.