SENATOBIA – Northwest Mississippi Community College men's basketball extended their winning streak to five games and improved to 12-4 overall as they won their conference opener over East Mississippi Community College 107-100 on Monday evening at Howard Coliseum.
Early offense from East Mississippi (10-7, 0-1) was able to propel the Lions to an early lead, pushing the lead up to 13-5 at one point, but a three from Ladarius Brown followed by a Grant Hutton tip in closed the gap and a Zahir Gutierrez three shot the Rangers in front as part of a 12-0 run of their own, going up 17-13 with 12:30 to play in the first half.
That lead would hold in a game that saw bursts of offense from both sides, but never really saw anyone take control.
The only thing that would mount regularly for Northwest was the foul trouble with both Dakota Morris and Brown picking up three before the halftime break.
After going into the locker room up 44-42, the Rangers burst out of the gate with a 6-0 run to extend the lead to eight but just a few minutes later East was right in the rearview mirror again, cutting it to 54-52 before a Morris three and a fast break from Gutierrez pushed the lead back to seven.
Morris continued to go to work, extending the lead to double digits for the first time with an and-one drive to give NWCC a 65-54 lead with 15 minutes left. That advantage grew to as much as 14 but a 14-2 run by EMCC brought them right back into the game over the next two and a half minutes.
The Rangers hit the century mark for the eleventh time this year with three minutes to go in the game on a free throw by Duffy, putting this year's team within one game of matching the second most 100-point games in program history, with the last time the Rangers had twelve 100-point games coming in the 2004-2005 season.
It also put Northwest up 101-91 and that would be enough for the Rangers to close the game on their way to their 12th win of the season and a 1-0 start to MACCC action.
The Rangers were paced in the game by Morris who finished with 24 points and four rebounds, going a perfect 7-7 from the foul line on a night that the Rangers went 24-27 for a season best 89 percent from the stripe.
Gutierrez had 19 points and also was perfect on his free throw attempts, going 6-6, and Demetrius Duffy added another double-double to his season tally with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Brown rounded out the Rangers in double figures with 15 of his own, going 5-10 from beyond the three-point line in the game.
Northwest only gave up four made threes to the Lions in the win, holding them to below 30 percent shooting from deep, and on the rebounding battle 51-41. They also have continued to limit the turnovers as the season has progressed, only giving it away 14 times in the game.
The Rangers will be back in action on Thursday when they make the trip to Goodman for a rematch with the Holmes Community College Bulldogs. The two sides faced each other on December 4th with Homles coming out with the 104-94 win. Since that game the Rangers have won their last five contests.
Tipoff of the game at Holmes is scheduled for 7:30 pm. You can find more information about this game at nwccrangers.com or you can follow along with Ranger athletics all season long on social media.
