Home Sweet Home

There’s no place like home and home for the Northeast Lady Tiger and Tiger basketball teams is the friendly confines of Bonner Arnold Coliseum “BAC.”

Built in part by the Northeast Mississippi Junior College Trades Training group, BAC opened its doors in 1951.  In the three previous years the Lady Tigers and Tigers played their home games at the old Booneville High School gym.

This year marks the 55th anniversary of one of the true home court advantages in community/junior college basketball.

From November 1988 to February 1990 the Tigers put together a 29-game home winning streak at BAC, which included a Region 23 Tournament championship in March of 1989.  Hinds Community College snapped the streak in the 1990 State Championship game.

Since then the Lady Tigers and Tigers have compiled a combined 294-74 record on their home floor, winning 79.8 percent of the time.

During the 1999-2000 season the Lady Tigers and Tigers re-established BAC as one of the toughest basketball venues among Mississippi’s community/junior colleges by claiming both the women’s and men’s North Division titles at the end of the 1992-93 season.  The Tigers went on the capture the State Championship in front of the home crowd as they did in 1994.  The two teams finished the ’99-’00 campaign with a combined record of 27-4

The Lady Tigers won back-to-back-to-back North Division crowns during the 2004, 2005 and 2006 seasons while posting a 28-4 mark in the legendary building.

In the early ‘70s BAC was completely renovated.  The most significant addition was twelve air conditioning units.  In 1988 1,000 chair back seats were installed on the east side.  The seats were the original box seats at the University of Mississippi’s Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

When set up for basketball, BAC will accommodate 1,000 spectators on each side of the floor and 600 in the pull-out bleachers traditionally set up on the north end.  The south end will seat 400 in folding chairs, bringing capacity to 3,000.

Although the three-court facility was designed primarily for basketball, BAC is used for commencement exercises, assemblies, concerts and the District, 4 Science Fair.  It also houses the offices of the head men’s basketball coach and assistant basketball coach.