Friday, November 20, 2009

River sweeps Holmes
Lady ’Cats 83-66 victors; ’Cats win 82-59

      POPLARVILLE — Pearl River Community College swept Holmes CC for the second time this basketball season with the Lady Wildcats pulling off an 83-66 victory and the Wildcats winning 82-59.
      PRCC also grabbed a pair of victories from HCC in Goodman on Nov. 9 with the women winning 77-57 and the men 72-69.
      Both River squads improved to 4-2 overall, while the visiting Lady Bulldogs remain winless at 0-6 and the Bulldogs evened their overall mark to 3-3.
      In the women’s game, PRCC jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the opening minutes before Ashely Jackson sank a pair of foul shots at the 16:30 mark for Holmes’ first points. That kicked off a 20-11 scoring run by the Lady Bulldogs over the ensuing eight minutes with Laquita Breland capping the surge with back-to-back goals to give HCC a 20-19 edge with 8:08 left before the break.
      Over the next three minutes, the score was tied once and the lead exchanged hands five times before Olivia Magee of Columbia High sank a trey at the 5:01 mark to put the Lady Wildcats up 27-26.
      PRCC closed out the first half with a 12-10 run to lead 39-36 at the intermission.
      The Lady Bulldogs grabbed a one-point lead in the opening minute of the second half off Tiffany Haynes three pointer and managed to knot things up at 42-42 off another Jackson bucket with 18:42 left, but Kenyatta Epps of Yazoo City snapped the stalemate with a bucket to kick off a 21-7 scoring run over the next eight minutes to build PRCC’s lead to 63-47 with 11:05 left.
      Holmes fought back with a 15-8 offensive surge to cut Pearl River’s lead to nine — 71-62 — at the 6:05 mark, but the Lady Wildcats iced the game with a 12-4 run from there on out to take the 17-point victory.
      Brittany Henry paced HCC with 16 points, while Justinne McClain added 10 added 10, Dorothy Carver and Haynes, seven each; Ashely Jackson six, Laquita Armstead five, Lawanda Greer, Brittany McGruder, and Marquish Pointer, four a piece; Latara Archie two, and Tiffany Williams one. Williams also hauled in a team-high eight rebounds.
      For Pearl River, Brittany Weathers of Oak Grove hit 19 points and grabbed 13 boards — both game-high totals — while Epps added 16 (seven rebounds, two treys), Magee 16 (eight rebounds, four blocked shots, two treys), Nicole Holder of Lumberton High 10, Charlene Green of South Pike High nine (two treys), Sam Fairley of Hattiesburg High five, and Jen Ervin of Atlanta, Ga., and Shandell Peters of East Marion, four each.
      From the field, PRCC hit a lackluster 39.4 percent (26 of 66), but bested HCC’s 31.6 percentile (25 of 79); while the Lady Wildcats were eight of 18 (44.4 percent) from three-point range to the Lady Bulldogs’ four-of-14 (28.6 percent) effort.
      Pearl River hit 63.9 percent (23 of 36) at the free throw line, while Holmes hit 48 percent (12 of 25).
      In men’s action, the Bulldogs grabbed the lead once the entire game. In the opening minute, Holmes went up 4-3, then a minute later managed to knot things up at 6-6 before the Wildcats unleashed a scoring barrage that built their lead to 18 points twice — 33-15 with 4:46 left in the half and 35-17 at the 2:39 mark — before halftime. The Wildcats led 40-23 at the intermission.
      In the second half, PRCC maintained a double-digit advantage throughout and built its lead to as much as 24 points at the midway point. The Wildcats outscored the Bulldogs 42-36 in the second half to take the 23-point victory.
      For Holmes, Anthony Jones led the way with 17 points (two treys), while Clyde Moore added 15, Jonathan Ratliff 13, Kayland Partee five, Justin Hearn four (three blocked shots), Jonathan Clay three, and John LeGrand two.
      Phillip Crawford of Mobile, Ala., paced the Wildcats with a game-high 24 points (five rebounds), while Kenderek Washington of Hinds AHS added 14 (six rebounds, two treys), Zach Vickers of Laurel Hill, Fla., 12 (six-for-six from the field); Emil Jones of North Forrest eight (five steals), Denzel McDaniel of Mobile, Ala., six (three steals), Mychael Keeler of Oak Grove High, Desmond Ratliff of Canton High (five rebounds, five assists), and John Walker of Bassfield High, four a piece; and Rod Little of Moss Point High, LaKendrick Maye of Prentiss High, and Josh Moore of Forest Hill High, two a piece.
      From the field, PRCC hit 57.4 percent (35 of 61) to HCC’s dismal 36.8 percent (21 of 57); while the Wildcats were two of five (40 percent) from three-point range to the Bulldogs’ two-of-18 (11.1 percent) effort. Pearl River hit 52.6 percent (10 of 19) at the foul line, while Holmes hit 62.5 percent (15 of 24).
      Pearl River travels to Wallace-Selma in Selma, Ala., Saturday for 3 p.m. (women) and 5 p.m. (men) games, while the Lady Wildcats will participate in the annual Mississippi Gulf Coast Classic Monday and Tuesday. PRCC’s women will take on Baton Rouge CC at 2 p.m. Monday, then face East Mississippi at 12 noon on Tuesday.
      Following the Thanksgiving break, The River will host Baton Rouge Monday, Nov. 30, at 5 p.m. (women) and 7 p.m. (men) before opening its MACJC South Division schedule against arch-rival Jones County in Ellisville Thursday, Dec. 3, at 6 p.m. (women) and 8 p.m. (men).