WESSON – The 2015 MACJC Basketball Tournament will get underway today at 1 p.m. at Mullen Gymnasium on the campus of Copiah-Lincoln Community College. The tournament runs Feb. 23-26.
The Northwest Lady Rangers (18-5, 8-4 north), runner-up in the north division, will open play at 7:45 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 23 against Jones County (16-6, 10-4 south). The Lady Bobcats have eliminated Northwest from the past three state tournaments they've played in.
Monday's game against Jones County will offer live stats at
www.sidearmstats.com/northwestms/wbball.
Northwest is led by a strong starting five of two freshmen and three sophomores, but can go deep into its bench to find production.
Kelsey Brown, the team's seventh-leading scorer, has a team-high 25 3-pointers made this season and scored 22 at Coahoma just two weeks ago.
All-American hopeful
Aspriona Gilbert is averaging a team-best 17.5 points and 8.3 rebounds-per-game while shooting an NJCAA-leading 69.7 percent from the floor and 73 percent from the free throw line. She has 11 double-doubles on the year and has led the team in scoring in 16 of 23 games.
Sara Lytle (11.5 PPG/5.2 RPG/2.3 APG/1.9 SPG) has scored in double figures in 12 games this year while her sister
Bethany Lytle (8.5 PPG/4.0 RPG/3.7 APG) has been a major distributer of the basketball with a team-high 85 assists, including 37 in the last seven games.
Tekevanna Young (8.5 PPG/3.8 RPG/3.1 APG) and
Kristina Mays (6.1 PPG/3.3 RPG/2.6 APG) round out the starting five while
Jacquelyn Brooks (5.6 PPG/5.6 RPG/1.3 BPG) has been huge as the Lady Rangers' sixth (wo)man. Brooks has a team-high 28 blocks this season and currently ranks seventh in school history with 48 swats for her career.
Northwest is averaging 82.5 points-per-game (8th in the NJCAA) and ranks in the Top 15 in the nation in four other categories, including second in FT/made game (19.9), third in FT/att game (30.1), fifth in assists/game (19.9) and 14th in rebounds/game (47.8).
For Jones County, four starters average double figures in freshman Taylor Baudoin (17.6 PPG/7.9 RPG) and sophomores Starla Daggans (14.5 PPG/5.0 RPG), Kadie Parker (12.3 PPG/4.2 RPG) and Alyson Johnson (11.1 PPG/4.2 RPG).
Just like Northwest, the Lady Bobcats like to push the ball up the floor and are averaging 82.4 points-per-game (9th in the NJCAA) and shooting 46.7 percent from the floor.
JCJC won last year's only meeting and has won seven of the last 12 overall. Northwest is looking for its first win in the series since Nov. 28, 2006.
Be sure to follow us on Twitter
@NWCC_Rangers to stay updated throughout the tournament.
A full tournament bracket, links to live video and overall tournament stats can be found at
www.jucoweekly.org.
