River sweeps Delgado

POPLARVILLE Pearl River Community College swept Delgado (La.) in NJCAA women and men basketball action here Thursday. PRCC eighth-ranked men team remains unbeaten after taking a high-scoring 100-83 victory to improve to 10-0, while the Lady Wildcats picked up their third win of the year with a 64-53 decision over the New Orleans-based Lady Dolphins. DCC men dropped to 6-5, while its women are now 3-7. In the men game, the Dolphins led three times in the opening minutes, but the Wildcats Vincent Gable of Picayune High hit a bucket at the 16:25 mark to snap a 9-9 stalemate and kick off a 14-3 scoring run to give PRCC its first double-digit lead of the game at 23-12 five minutes later. Pearl River outscored Delgado 19-8 over the next six minutes to build its lead to 42-20 its largest of the first half while the Dolphins answered with a 13-8 run to trail the Wildcats 50-33 at the intermission. DCC outscored PRCC 9-4 in the opening minutes of the second half to pull to within 14, but the Wildcats responded with eight unanswered points to rebuild their lead to 22. The River led by as much as 28 points 88-60 with 4:45 left before Delgado closed out the game with a 23-12 scoring surge only to come up 18 points shy of victory. LaKendrick Maye of Prentiss High, who finished the night with a career-high 20 points, hit a basket in the final minute to pump PRCC lead to the century mark. Renard Smith led Delgado with 25 points (four treys, five assists), while Darrell Williams added 19 (three treys, seven assists, five steals), Rashaun Claiborne 12, Joshua Major and Jauries Thomas (three steals), six each; Dwight Alvens five, Darius Henry four (eight rebounds), Melvin Ursin three, Devonte Jones two, and Brandon Diggs one. Kentari Nettles out of LeFlore High in Mobile paced The River with 25 points, 13 rebounds, and seven assists all career-high totals while Maye followed with 20. Troy State signee Emil Jones of North Forrest High scored 14 (eight rebounds, four steals), Phillip Crawford out of Murphy High in Mobile 12 (10 rebounds), Daron Bell of Bay High 11, Gable nine, Calvin Johnson of Ridgeland High three, and Adarrius Hunter of Petal High, Marshun McGee out of Bailey High in Jackson, and Pedro Maciel (10 assists), a Centenary University (La.) transfer who prepped at St. Stanislaus, two a piece. Delgado hit 39.7 percent (31 of 78) from the field to Pearl River 54.2 percent (39 of 72), while the Dolphins were nine of 23 (39.1 percent) from three-point range to the Wildcats five-of-13 (38.5 percent) effort. DCC was 12 of 18 (66.7 percent) at the foul line, while PRCC was 17 of 24 (70.8 percent). The River also won the rebounding battle with 47 (10 offensive, 37 defensive) boards to Delgado 42 (14 offensive, 28 defensive). In the women game, the Lady Dolphins never led in the game with the Lady Wildcats holding their visitors to a meager six points for nearly half of the first half of the contest to grab a 17-point advantage 23-6 with 10:55 left before the intermission. Delgado answered with an impressive 17-6 scoring run over the next seven minutes to pull to within four 27-23 at the 4:06 mark before The River finished the half with a 12-4 scoring surge to lead 35-25 at the break. Pearl River opened the second half with an impressive 15-7 scoring surge to build its lead to 50-32 its largest of the game with 12:59 left before DCC wrapped the contest with a 21-14 scoring surge on to come up 10 points shy of a win. Raven Holmes paced the Lady Dolphins with 14 points and 12 boards both game-high totals while sinking three treys. Shaquita James added 13 (five assists, three treys), Myaisha Nixon (nine rebounds) and Erne Snowden (seven rebounds), six each; Kayla Jackson and Brittany Walker, five each; and Ariente Williams four. Francheska Bowman out of Choctaw High in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., led Pearl River with 12 points (five rebounds, three blocked shots), while Branita Malone, another Choctaw (Fla.) recruit, added 11 (eight rebounds), Kenyatta Epps of Yazoo City High nine (three treys, five rebounds), Alayna Bridges of Oak Grove High (five rebounds) and Nicole Holder of Lumberton High, eight each; Eugena Fry of out of Wingfield High in Jackson and Charlene Green out of South Pike High in Magnolia (five rebounds), five each; Quentessa Bullock of East Marion High, Toy Johnson of Pascagoula High (seven assists, three steals), and Francheska McMahon out of Lewisburg High in Hernando, two a piece. Delgado hit 32.4 percent (22 of 68) from the field to Pearl River 43.3 percent (26 of 60), while the Lady Dolphins were six of 27 (22.2 percent) from three-point range to the Lady Wildcats five-of-15 (33.3 percent) effort. DCC was three of 10 (30 percent) at the foul line, while PRCC was seven of 16 (43.6 percent). Delgado topped the rebounding game with 47 (22 offensive, 25 defensive) to Pearl River 44 (14 offensive, 30 defensive). After a Christmas holiday break, Pearl River returns to action with a pair of rematches with Delgado on Monday, Jan. 3, in New Orleans with game times at 2 p.m. (women) and 4 p.m. (men) before resuming MACJC non-division action when it travels to Mississippi Delta in Moorhead Thursday, Jan. 6, for 5 p.m. (women) and 7 p.m. (men) contests.

Each community college president is asked to bring two (2) wrapped door prizes, minimum value of $50 each. We will have a station set up at the conference for you to drop off the door prizes.

Each community college is asked to provide name tags for their Board members, administration, and staff attending the conference.