Friday, January 15, 2010

River sweeps Delgado
Lady Wildcats three-point winners, Wildcats bomb Dolphins 85-51

     POPLARVILLE — Pearl River Community College swept Delgado (La.) in women’s and men’s NJCAA basketball action here Thursday in Shivers Gymnasium.
     The Lady Wildcats defeated the Lady Dolphins for the second time this season with a hard-fought 57-53 victory, while the Wildcats avenged their 91-81 earlier setback on Nov. 12 in New Orleans to the Dolphins with a dominating 85-51 win. The Lady ‘Cats took a 51-45 win over Delgado Nov. 12.
     PRCC’s women evened their overall mark to 7-7, while its men are now 10-4. DCC’s women and men dropped to 5-11 and 8-10, respectively.
     In the women’s game, the Lady Dolphins managed to take brief leads only twice in the first half, while the score was tied four times before the Lady Wildcats went up for good.
     Shandell Peters of East Marion sank a bucket with 8:20 left in the half to snap a 17-17 stalemate and Pearl River never looked back. Peters’ basket kicked off a 14-4 scoring surge that built the Lady Wildcats lead to 31-21 — their largest of the half — with 1:57 left before the break.
     Delgado closed it out with a 5-2 run to cut PRCC’s lead to 33-26 at the intermission.
     Pearl River rebuilt its lead to 10 — 40-30 — at the midway point of the second half, but Delgado answered with an impressive 12-2 run over the ensuing three minutes to knot things up at 42. After the Lady Dolphins tied it up for the last time with 4:52 left at 44-44, Brittany Weathers of Oak Grove iced the game for The River when she scored 10 of her game-high 25 points the rest of the way to propel PRCC to its four-point victory.
     Delgado was 20 of 56 (35.7 percent) from the field to Pearl River’s 16-of-35 (45.7 percent) effort, while the Lady Dolphins sank a six of 18 three-point attempts (33.3 percent) to the Lady Wildcats’ four-of-11 (36.4 percent) showing. At the foul line, DCC was seven of 18 (38.9 percent), while PRCC was 21 of 35 (71.4 percent).
     The Lady Wildcats hauled in 35 rebounds to the Lady Dolphins’ 34, while PRCC had 28 turnovers to DCC’s 21.
     Jamey Ellis led Delgado with 22 points (five treys), while Christine Conner added 12, Savannah Lerille and Missy Scrubbs, four each; Timesha Jackson, Tomeka Jones, and Brittany Walker, three a piece; and Jennifer Varmail two.
     Besides Weathers, who also grabbed a game-high nine rebounds, Nicole Holder of Lumberton High scored 11, Charlene Green of South Pike nine, Peters seven (six rebounds), and Kenyatta Epps of Yazoo City five.
     In men’s action, Delgado dug itself a gigantic hole from the get-go, as the Wildcats burst out to a dominating 16-0 lead in the first 4:20 of the game before Josh Major sank a foul shot for the Dolphins first point.
     PRCC answered with a 27-18 run over the next 10 minutes to build a 24-point lead — its largest of the half — at 43-19. The Dolphins closed out the half with a 12-6 scoring surge to cut the Wildcats’ lead to 49-31 at the break.
     Pearl River outscored Delgado 36-20 in the second half to take the 85-51 win. The Wildcats led by as many as 36 points in the final minute.
     Delgado was 16 of 64 (25 percent) from the field to Pearl River’s 35-of-66 (53 percent) effort, while the Dolphins sank a dismal two of 21 three-point attempts (9.5 percent) to the Wildcats’ four-of-nine (44.4 percent) showing. At the foul line, DCC was 17 of 32 (53.1 percent), while PRCC was 11 of 21 (55 percent).
     The River dominated the boards with 56 rebounds to Delgado’s 36, but turned the ball over 21 times to the visitors’ 13.
     Brian Gibson led the Dolphins with 10 points (eight rebounds), while Jamill Sanders and Darrell Williams added seven each. Devin Grigsby scored six, Stafford Riley five, Kenneth Burnett and Will Christian, four each; Dwight Alveris and Josh Major, three each; and Terry Jackson two.
     Phillip Crawford of Mobile, Ala., paced the Wildcats with a game-high 21 points; while Emil Jones of North Forrest added 13 (nine rebounds), Mykael Keeler of Oak Grove and Zach Vickers of Laurel Hill, Fla., 10 each; Kenderek Washington of Hinds AHS nine, Rod Little of Moss Point eight, Josh Moore of Jackson (Forest Hill) seven, Tre Brown of Ocean Springs, Denzel McDaniel of Mobile, Ala. (six rebounds), and El’Regious Stubbs of Pearl, two a piece; and Cody Ladner of Pearl River Central one.
     PRCC returns to MACJC South Division action Tuesday with a road trip to Southwest Mississippi in Summit starting 5 p.m. (women) and 7 p.m. (men), then travels to division foe East Central Thursday for 6 p.m. (women) and 8 p.m. (men) contests.