SENATOBIA – A late surge by the Northwest Mississippi Community College women's basketball team (10-5, 1-0) helped the Rangers to a 61-59 win over East Mississippi Community College (3-9, 0-1) on Monday night at Howard Coliseum to kick of MACCC action.
The Rangers got off to the early hot start as they used a pair of fast-break layups to get out to the early 7-0 lead in the opening 90 seconds with a Shiloh Hatch three highlighting the run. The lead would swell to 11-0 before the Lions would finally break the cold stretch with a free throw with 4:25 to play.
East only found an answer late with Dukiaha Jones scoring all ten of the points for the Lions in the quarter, but Northwest didn't let it hurt them as they had answers on each returning possession and held a 19-10 lead after the opening ten minutes.
Steam began to run out for the Ranger offense in the second quarter, and the free throw line became the Northwest answer to score. East began to also take advantage of their turnovers cutting the lead down to 20-17 in the opening three minutes of the frame and down to 26-24 with two minutes to play in the first half and a layup at the end cut it to a 27-26 game with Northwest holding the lead.
The Lions came out and took their first lead of the game on the first possession of the second half, but Northwest responded well and went inside to Alorian Story and Hatch to reclaim the lead.
East rallied twice to get back to within one, but Story rolled in the quarter for Northwest with nine points and four rebounds in the quarter to keep the Lions at bay and NWCC up 45-43.
Ties would open the fourth quarter at 45 and 47 before a three by Dekyra Mitchell helped to settle down the Rangers who were able to get the advantage back to two possessions on their next trip down the court. Another Mitchell seemed to seal the win with three minutes to go, but East continued to fight and with just over one minute to play had fought back to a 57-56 score.
A pair of free throws from Layla Hampton pushed it back to three but a Jones triple tied the game at 59 all with 36 seconds to go.
Northwest took a timeout down the stretch to talk over a play, and the ensuing possession saw the ball fed into Story who converted a reverse lay-in for the go-ahead score. With 14 seconds to play, East still had several chances, but their final shot came up short and the Rangers survived a scare with a 61-59 win.
Story was a monster for the Rangers inside with 23 points and 19 rebounds adding to her career total, pushing her to 443 in her two years as a Ranger. Mitchell was at it again as well with a 19-point game and Hampton rounded out the scorers in double figures with 10 to go with five assists and four steals.
As a team, the Rangers struggled with their shooting, only hitting on 27.5 percent of their shots in the game, but they forced 18 turnovers and were nearly perfect from the foul line, making 19-22 compared to 14-20 for the Lions. Story was a big part of that going 13-15 from the line.
The Rangers are back in action on Thursday when they hit the road for their first MACCC road game at Holmes Community College. Northwest picked up a non-conference win over the Bulldogs 72-58 on December 8th.
Opening tip for the game is scheduled for 5:30 pm. Follow along with everything Northwest online at nwccrangers.com or by checking out Ranger social media accounts.
