FAVORITE FLASHBACKS: Double dribble call in final seconds concluded an enthralling game between EMCC and Jones in MACJC 1st round

Published 6:37 pm Tuesday, June 9, 2020

A close game with a close call.

For nearly 40 full minutes, East Mississippi and Jones battled for a spot in the second round of the MACJC playoffs, with neither team able to build a substantial lead on the other. Then a double dribble call with less than 10 seconds remaining in regulation, leading to a free-throw inducing technical, sealed the contest.

Hosting the tournament on their home court, the higher-seeded Lions fell behind by nine midway through the opening half as the Bobcats took a 23-14 advantage. Jakorie Smith, EMCC’s leading scorer during the regular season, got into early foul trouble and spent just eight minutes on the floor in the first half, so the attention turned to the 6-foot-6 Arecko Gipson Jr. and his 6-foot-3 Jones defender. 

Gipson Jr. had a clear height advantage and came alive in the final 10 minutes of the half in leading a 9-0 run for the Lions and scoring 14 of his squad’s 18 points to take a slim 30-29 lead at the break.

“I just saw they had a mismatch on me, and (my defender) was only 6-foot-3,” Gipson Jr. said after the game. “So I just posted up and looked for my teammates to find me.” 

EMCC and Jones went back and forth through most of the second half, with the Lions only able to grab as much as a six-point advantage at 53-47 with 6:20 left. After going down by six with less than 90 second to play, Meridian native Traemond Pittman hit a 3-pointer from the corner to make it a three-point contest. The Bobcats then missed the first free throw of a one-and-one, the Lions hauled in the rebound, moved into opposing territory and called a timeout with 7.8 seconds left.

Drama then ensued. 

Off a loose ball from a tipped inbounds pass, Donte Powers grabbed the rock, crossed over a defender and ran to the 3-point line where he pulled up and sank the 3 that would’ve leveled the score with 4.7 seconds to play.

But before he fired off the shot, on the crossover, a referee blew his whistle for a double-dribble violation on Powers. A furious Bill Begley, EMCC’s head coach who later said he has a history with that referee, argued the call and was then handed a technical foul, setting up Jones with two free throws.

The Bobcats hit both shots to come away with a 70-65 victory.

“I’m not taking anything away from Jones. Jones stepped up and made some huge shots at the end,” Begley said afterward. “Would we have won that game? I don’t know. But (that referee) completely took the outcome of the game out of the kids’ hands because he wanted to make a call.”

Gipson Jr. played all 40 minutes of the contest and led all scorers with 23 points. Pittman and Smith also reached double figures, collecting 13 and 11 points respectively. The Lions went on to play another tightly contested game against Hinds in the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament at Mississippi College a week later, where they fell 70-64 to the Bulldogs.