Pictured above-Eboni Crayton dribbles the ball down court on Thursday night against ICC at Bonner Arnold Coliseum on January 15, 2009.

TIGERS; LADY TIGERS EARN SPLIT DECISION AGAINST ARCH RIVALS

 BOONEVILLE, Miss. -- Northeast Mississippi Community College’s men’s and women’s basketball teams were in action at Bonner Arnold Coliseum on Thursday night and came away with a split decision against the Itawamba Indians.

The Lady Tigers trailed 44-25 at halftime, but despite being outscored by the Lady Indians by just two-points 42-40 in the second half, fell 84-67 to the Lady Indians.

In the men’s game, the Indians led 37-32 at intermission, but Northeast was able to outscore ICC 51-42 in the second half and pushed their way to an 83-79 victory.

The Lady Tigers fell to 5-9 overall, 1-3 in North Division play. Meanwhile, the Tigers upped their record to 8-8 overall and 1-3 in the division.

Even though the temperature was cold outside, the Lady Indians were hot inside. Sanqueeta Meardith shot the lights out for the Lady Indians on 11-of-19 from the floor, 9-of-10 from the charity stripe, and 4-of-7 from downtown ending the game with 35 points.

Northeast was led by Eboni Crayton who finished the evening shooting 8-of-10 from the floor and 4-of-4 from the free-throw line to tally up 21 points on the night.  Erika Wright followed Crayton with 12 points on 5-of-8 from the floor and 2-of-3 from the line.

On the men’s side, Itawamba opened up the game with an alley-hoop slam-dunk that quieted the packed house at Bonner Arnold Coliseum for a short time.  However, the home crowd quickly responded to the play of the Tigers as John Sexton, William Burdette, and Andre Southern performed at a high level much to the delight of the fans.

Sexton finished the night with 16 points.  Burdette clocked-out with a game high 20 points, while Southern proved to be the hero of the bunch, hitting clutch shots down the stretch finishing with 14 points.

Southern was 2-of-2 from the line and 5-of-6 from the floor.  But his most important stat came from downtown as he shot 100 percent on 2-of-2 from behind the arc and those deep balls proved to be the difference in the game. 

At the 5:30 mark in the second half Southern launched a three-point shot that hit its mark and put the Tigers within two points 64-66.  Less than a minute later Southern again drained the trifecta that put Northeast up by one point 71-70.

Southern would help seal the game at the line hitting two free-throw shots with 20.5 seconds left to play in the game to put the score at 80-75.  “I think we played hard and we are surely glad for the win”, said Southern.

Northeast will travel to Coahoma Community College on Thursday, Jan. 22, to face the Tigers of Coahoma. The women’s game begins at 6 p.m., followed by the men’s contest at 8 p.m.