Pictured above-Eboni Crayton shoots a jumper at the Davis Event Center in Fulton, Miss., on Monday night, February 9, 2009..

ICC INDIANS, LADY INDIANS TOMAHAWK NORTHEAST

BOONEVILLE, Miss. – Northeast Mississippi Community College’s Tigers and Lady Tigers basketball teams were scalped by the Indians and Lady Indians of Itawamba Community College in Fulton on Monday night.

Itawamba was in full force at the Davis Event Center where they put on a “Pow-Wow” in front of a packed coliseum full of Indian fans to improve their record to 17-7, 7-3. 

Northeast fell to 12-12, 4-6 after the loss to the Indians. 

With the loss the Tigers will have to win out in the North Division in hopes of making the Mississippi Association of Community/Junior College’s (MACJC) state playoffs.

At the 3-minute mark of the first half, Northeast sophomore forward William Burdette (New Albany) threw down a “monster slam” to temporarily quiet the home crowd but it still wasn’t enough to give Northeast any momentum as they trailed at the break by 18 points (41-23).

 Itawamba pushed its lead to 21 with 14:02 left in the game on a score of 53-31, and were led by sophomore Theron Jenkins (Northwest Rankin). 

Jenkins dropped 14 points and four boards hitting 5-of-13 from the floor and was perfect from the line hitting 2-of-2.

Burdette led the Tigers in scoring finishing the game with 10 points and five rebounds, followed by Andre Southern who had six points and four rebounds.

Freshman guard Brandon Robbins (Booneville) entered the game at the 3:30-mark and scored his first collegiate basket with 30 seconds left to play. 

Robbins, son of Northeast men’s basketball coach David Robbins, hit a deep three-point basket from the corner to make the final score 76-62 in favor of the home standing Indians.

The Lady Indians (17-5, 9-1) spear-headed the victory charge in the first game defeating the Lady Tigers (9-12, 4-6) on a final score of 95-70.

Itawamba had their way in the first half as the Lady Indians went on a 12-0 run for a score of 25-13 until Northeast’s Rumae Butler was able to hit two free-throws to end the run with 6:34 left in the half.

“We did exactly what an inferior team should do when a superior team steps on the floor, said Lady Tiger head coach Ricky Ford.  We backed down in every situation and let them have their way and that is the bottom line.”

Itawamba extended its lead to 15  with only 4:35 left in the first half (32-17) until sophomore Eboni Crayton drained a deep three-ball to cut into the lead and Northeast went in at half time down by only 10 38-28.

But in the second half Sanqueeta Meardith and company showed their superiority as Meardith scored a game-high 22 points, followed by Lori Crudup who scored 12 points, and Jessica Collins who also drained 10 markers on the evening for ICC.

Crayton was the high scorer for the Lady Tigers dropping 12 points and pulling down five rebounds while Erika Wright added five points on 11 boards on the night.

Northeast will have some extended time off to prepare for their next home game against Coahoma scheduled for February 16, at Bonner Arnold Coliseum.

Tip-off for the game is set for 6 p.m. for the Lady Tigers and 8 p.m. for the Tigers.

###