River splits with Baton Rouge

POPLARVILLE Pearl River Community College split with Baton Rouge CC in NJCAA women and men basketball action here Tuesday with the Lady Wildcats falling 59-58 via a last-second basket, while the Wildcats dominated the visiting Bears 68-47. The PRCC women evened their overall record to 3-3 with the setback, while its men improved to 3-4. BRCC women improved to 10-4, while its men dropped to 2-10. Pearl River swept Baton Rouge 75-48 (women) and 70-50 (men) in previous meetings played Nov. 3 in Baton Rouge. The Lady Wildcats led the entire game until the Lady Bears took a 55-54 advantage off a pair of free throws by Courtney Chargois with 1:38 left before regaining the lead off a basket by Shanta Echols of Sumrall High with four seconds remaining. BRCC Taliah Robertson followed with the game-winning bucket with six-tenths of a second left. Pearl River opened the game in dominating fashion, jumping out to a 23-10 lead its largest of the game with 6:58 left in the first half, but Baton Rouge answered with a 14-4 run to cut the Lady Wildcats lead to 27-24 at the intermission. The Lady Bears kept it close in the second half, pulling to within one point three times until Chargois foul shots at the end. PRCC managed to build a six-point lead with 12:10 left off a three-point play by Echols, as well as a seven-point advantage some six minutes later off a basket by Samantha Gunn, a Canton native who prepped at Velma Jackson High. Chargois led all scorers in the game with 19 points, while Robertson added 11 (four rebounds), Brittany Brown 10 (six rebounds), Charkira Fields and Rhondalon Popularus, five each; Quitesha Scott four (five steals), Desiree Savage and Kera St. John, two each; and Chelsea Christopher one. Echols paced The River with 13 points (nine rebounds), while Gunn added nine (four rebounds), Daiquari Raine of Poplarville High (nine rebounds) and Quentessa Bullock of East Marion High (six rebounds), eight each; Toy Johnson of Pascagoula High seven (eight assists, three steals), Shana Ward, an East Central CC transfer from Carthage, six; Branita Malone out of Choctaw High in Ft. Walton Beach, Fla., five (five rebounds), and Stephanie Fratesi out of Washington High in Leland two. Pearl River hit 54.5 percent (18 of 33) from the free throw line to Baton Rouge 50 percent (nine of 18), while the Lady Wildcats were 19 of 58 (32.8 percent) from the field to the Lady Bears 24-of-49 (49 percent) effort. From three-point range, PRCC was two of eight (25 percent), while BRCC was two of seven (28.6 percent). Pearl River dominated the boards with 43 rebounds (24 offensive, 19 defensive) to Baton Rouge 32 (10 offensive, 22 defensive), while the Lady Cats had 24 turnovers to the Lady Bears 23. In the men game, it was all Wildcats from the opening tip off. PRCC held BRCC scoreless for the first three-and-a-half minutes and quickly built a double-digit lead. Pearl River built its lead to as many as 18 points 33-15 at the 4:23 mark of the first half and led 39-22 at the intermission. In the second half, the Wildcats opened with a 21-7 scoring run to grab its biggest lead of the game 60-31 with 7:41 left before the Bears put together a 16-7 run the rest of the way. Jordan Bedford led Baton Rouge with 13 points (four rebounds), including a six-for-six effort at the foul line, while Levie Wright added 10 (two treys), Patrick Agho nine (six rebounds), Malaiak Henderson five, Lyonne Richardson four, and Rodney Dixon (six rebounds), Demetri Gill (six rebounds), and Avery Prince, two a piece. Zane Knowles, a Grambling State (La.) transfer from Nassau, Bahamas, paced The River with 18 points and 11 rebounds both game-high totals while Daron Bell of Bay High added 15 (six rebounds, five assists), Yondarius Johnson, another Grambling transfer who hails from Plain Dealing, La., 13 (three assists), Mike Henry of Wayne County High nine, Daterris Rogers of Wayne County High four, Josh Carpenter of Oak Grove high three, and Raheem England of Decatur (Ala.) High (six assists), Jeremy Moore out of Jim Hill High in Jackson (three assists), and Marcus Rawls of Picayune High (nine rebounds), two a piece. Derionne Stewart of Picayune High hauled in seven boards for the Wildcats. Pearl River hit 65.5 percent (19 of 29) from the free throw line to Baton Rouge 75 percent (18 of 24), while the Wildcats were 24 of 50 (48 percent) from the field to the Bears dismal 13-of-54 (24.1 percent) effort. From three-point range, PRCC was one of one (100 percent), while BRCC was three of 17 (17.6 percent). Pearl River dominated the boards with 49 rebounds (13 offensive, 36 defensive) to Baton Rouge 29 (nine offensive, 20 defensive), while the Wildcats had 14 turnovers to the Bears 10. PRCC returns to action with a road trip to Delgado (La.) CC in New Orleans Thursday with contests at 5 p.m. (women) and 7 p.m. (men) before opening MACJC South Division play at home Monday, Dec. 5, against Copiah-Lincoln at the same game times.

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.