SCOOBA – EMCC’s Lady Lions earned the final spot in this year’s NJCAA Region 23 Women’s Basketball Tournament Monday by rallying for a 67-63 home win over Meridian Community College. The EMCC men dropped a tough 65-62 decision to the visiting MCC Eagles in the nightcap to conclude the Lions’ 2024-25 hoops season.

In making their second region tournament appearance in three seasons under the direction of head coach Isaiah Butler, the 12th-seeded EMCC Lady Lions (10-16, 5-9 MACCC) will begin this year’s tournament Thursday by traveling to Moorhead to take on the fifth-seeded Lady Trojans of Mississippi Delta (18-6, 8-6 MACCC). Tip-off for Thursday’s first-round contest is set for 5:30 p.m. at J.T. Hall Coliseum on the MDCC campus.

Thursday’s EMCC-MDCC winner will advance to second-round action to be played at fourth-seeded Northeast Mississippi (17-12, 9-5 MACCC) in Booneville on March 10. The semifinals and finals of this year’s women’s region tournament will be played March 14-15 in Poplarville and hosted by MACCC champion and nationally 14th-ranked Pearl River Community College (24-2, 13-1 MACCC).

Exactly one month ago to the day of Thursday’s rematch in Moorhead, the EMCC women claimed a 49-41 road win over Mississippi Delta to complete an unbeaten week of MACCC competition. Lady Lion freshman guard Dukiaha Jones scored the game’s last six points during the final 1:31 against the Lady Trojans to finish with a team-high 15 points to go along with nine rebounds and five steals.

During Monday’s Sophomore Night contest against Meridian, the home-standing Lady Lions had to dig out of an early 14-0 hole by playing catch-up before taking their first lead late in the third quarter. After finally getting on the board with Zarria Shipp’s 3-pointer late in the opening quarter on the heels of missing their first 10 shot attempts from the field and committing eight turnovers through the game’s first eight minutes, the Lady Lions scored the last six points of the opening quarter to cut the deficit to 18-9 by the quarter break.

EMCC proceeded to outscore the Lady Eagles during each of the remaining three quarters to slowly recover from the team’s slow start. A 19-16 advantage during the second quarter further trimmed the margin to six points (34-28) by halftime.

The Lady Lions continued to trail for most of the third quarter until Shalea Boddie’s basket at the 2:31 mark gave the home team its first lead of the contest at 46-45. Following four straight lead changes late in the quarter after Meridian’s Nataysia Willis answered Boddie’s bucket and Micaiah Satcher’s 3-pointer with consecutive baskets of her own, the visitors clung to a precarious 51-49 lead entering the final 10 minutes of play.

EMCC methodically reclaimed the momentum by scoring the first nine points of the fourth quarter on baskets from four different players, capped by Kennedi McCray’s 3-pointer. The Lady Lions did not relinquish the lead after taking the seven-point advantage to begin the quarter, though Meridian battled back throughout the final period.

Within the final minute of play down the stretch, it was primarily EMCC’s Jones who supplied the finishing touches on the Lady Lions’ 10th overall win of the season and fifth conference victory. The freshman out of West Point High School drilled a 3-pointer with 46.6 seconds left to put EMCC on top 64-60. Meridian’s Halei Keyes countered 11 seconds later with a made trey to again make it a one-point game (64-63). After the two teams traded misses from the field, the Lady Lions earned a jump ball held possession with 5.8 seconds on the game clock. Jones then nailed the second attempt of a two-shot foul with only 3.4 ticks remaining in regulation. On the game’s next possession, the Lady Eagles mistakenly called a timeout they did not have when they had difficulties inbounding the ball. Jones drilled the resulting technical foul shots to seal the victory and secure EMCC’s ticket to the region tournament.

Jones paced EMCC’s quintet of double-digit scorers with a game-high 18 points, which included 11-of-14 accuracy from the charity stripe. Boddie, McCray, Satcher and Kennedi Wagner all followed with 10 points apiece for the Lady Lions.

Falling to 15-14 overall and 7-7 in MACCC play, the Lady Eagles were led by Willis and Keyes with 16 and 15 points, respectively.