Wednesday, March 03, 2010

State champ Wildcats in regional semi-finals after topping Jaguars
Top-seeded PRCC cans Southern-Shreveport 64-53 in opening round of Region 23 Tournament; eyes post-season Itawamba rematch Wednesday

    CLINTON — The top-seeded Pearl River Wildcats pounded cellar-seeded Southern-Shreveport (La.) 64-53 for their 18th-straight victory in opening-round action of the Region 23 Tournament underway here Tuesday in A.L. Wood Coliseum on the Mississippi College campus.
    PRCC, which won the state championship last Thursday in the MACJC State Tournament at Scooba, improved to 24-4 overall with the win and now faces fifth-seeded Itawamba Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the semi-finals.
    The Wildcats eliminated ICC in the state tournament semis in a hard-fought 79-71 decision. Head coach Marty Cooper’s Indians ended fourth-seeded Jones County’s season earlier Tuesday with a 84-75 win to get into the semi-final match.
    Nineteenth-year River head coach Richard Mathis said his Wildcats will have their hands full against Itawamba.
    “We held them to only 15 in the first half in the state semis, but they came back put up 56 on us in the second half,” Mathis said. “They actually beat us in the second half 56-53 after we led 26-15 at the half.
    “They’ve got a nice team with some good shooters and they’ll be a challenge to us for sure.”
    Against the Southern-Shreveport, the Wildcats held the Jaguars to one two-point basket in the first five minutes of the game and built their lead to 13 points — 23-10 — with 7:20 left before the break.
    The Jags answered with a 9-3 run to cut PRCC’s lead to 26-19 at the 2:45 mark, but the Wildcats closed out the half with a 7-0 scoring surge to lead 33-19 at the break.
    Pearl River opened the second half with another 7-0 run to build its lead to 21 — its largest of the game. The Wildcats built 21-point advantages two more times in the second half and maintained a double-digit lead throughout.
    Trailing 60-40 with 5:30 left, Southern-Shreve put together a 13-4 run to end the game and cut PRCC’s lead to 11.
    “Sometimes when you win the state tournament, you get satisfied and don’t want to play in the regionals,” Mathis said. “The kids told me they want to win (the regionals). They’ve given the effort. That’s all I can ask of them.”
    The Jags were the Miss-Lou Tournament runners-up to champion Delgado (La.), the regional’s No. 3 seed. DCC ended its season Tuesday with a 92-86 loss to No. 6 Hinds.
    Corey Ellis led S-SCC with 12 points (six rebounds), while Rodney Hill added 11 (three treys), Mikadria Shelton nine, Marcus Guy (six rebounds, two blocked shots) and Brione Staffore (five rebounds, three blocked shots), eight each; Zach Lewis three, and Justin Patten two.
    Rod Little of Moss Point High paced the Wildcats with a game-high 19 points, while Phillip Crawford out of Murphy High in Mobile added 14 (seven rebounds, two blocked shots), Kenderek Washington of Hinds AHS 13, Emil Jones of North Forrest High six (six rebounds), Kegan Houston of Quitman High and Desmond Ratliff of Canton High, four each; and LaKendrick Maye of Prentiss High and Zach Vickers out of Paxton High in Laurel Hill, Fla., two each.
    Southern-Shreve was 19 of 61 (31.1 percent) from the field to Pearl River’s 24-of-53 (45.3 percent) effort, while the Jaguars were four of 24 (16.7 percent) from three-point range to the Wildcats’ three-of-eight (37.5 percent) showing. At the foul line, S-SCC was 11 of 17 (64.7 percent), while PRCC was 13 of 22 (59.1 percent).
    In other regional opening-round action, No. 2-seeded East Mississippi ended No. 7 Northeast Mississippi’s season with an 86-79 victory. East Miss will now face Hinds at 8 p.m. Wednesday. Wednesday’s semi-final winners will face off Thursday at 8 p.m. for the men’s Region 23 championship. The regional winner will earn a berth in the NJCAA National Tournament set for March 16-20 in Hutchinson, Kan.