EMCC Lions fall 107-100 in high-scoring conference opener at Northwest Mississippi

SENATOBIA -- The visiting EMCC Lions battled the high-scoring Rangers of Northwest Mississippi from the opening tip to the final buzzer before being outgunned, 107-100, during Monday night's conference opener played at Howard Coliseum.

The nightcap between EMCC and Northwest proved to be as equally entertaining as the women's two-point opening contest, as 207 total points were scored between the teams during the regulation men's contest. The Lions owned the initial upper hand by jumping out to an early 13-5 lead before the Rangers scored 12 unanswered points.

After Northwest led by as many as six points during the opening half of play, EMCC managed to tie the game on three separate occasions prior to the break.

Following intermission with the home team owning a narrow 44-42 halftime lead, Northwest connected on consecutive three-pointers to quickly jump ahead by eight points right out of the second-half gates. The Lions responded with six straight points to pull to within a basket.

Entering the contest averaging 103 points per game on the year as the fourth-highest scoring team in NJCAA Division I men's basketball, the Rangers built a 14-point (74-60) advantage seven minutes into the second stanza. To their credit through the game's frenetic scoring pace, the Lions answered once more with a 14-2 spurt that again cut the deficit to just two points midway through the half.

Despite reaching the century mark in the scoring column for the second time on the year, EMCC was not able to regain the lead during the second half. The Lions did manage to trim the margin to five points during the game's final minute of play, but the Rangers closed out a collective 24-of-27 (89%) free throw shooting effort by nailing their last eight attempts from the charity stripe during the game's final three minutes of action.

Diovion Famakinde paced the Lions' quintet of double-digit scorers with 21 points. Jace O'Neal followed with 17 points, while DeAndre Lewis and Ace McKinnie added 13 points apiece. EMCC's Curly Robinson scored his 11 points all in the second half.

While improving to 11-0 on the year when scoring 100 or more points in a game, Northwest was led by Dakota Morris' game-high 24 points. Zahir Gutierrez and Demetrius Duffy followed with 19 and 18 points, respectively, while Ladarrius Brown completed the Rangers' quartet of double-figure scorers with 15 points.

Coach Billy Begley's EMCC Lions will look to get back on the winning track by playing host to Copiah-Lincoln on Thursday (Jan. 15) on the Scooba campus. A 5:30 p.m. women's game will precede a 7:30 p.m. men's contest at EMCC's newly renovated Keyes T. Currie Coliseum.