HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The No. 15 East Mississippi Community College men’s basketball team couldn’t take advantage of a solid first-half defensive effort in a 71-63 loss to No. 1 and unbeaten South Plains College (Texas) on Tuesday in Game 1 of the 2012 NJCAA Division National Championship at the Hutchinson Sports Arena.
Coach Mark White’s Lions (23-5) will move to the consolation bracket of the double-elimination tournament and will take on seventh-ranked Indian Hills C.C., out of Ottumwa, Iowa, in Game 9 at 3 p.m. today. Indian Hills (30-4) lost to third-ranked Monroe College (N.Y.) 81-69 in Tuesday’s opening-round action.
EMCC used a 13-2 run to overcame a 16-11 deficit and take a 24-18 lead on a Millaun Brown basket with 8 minutes, 22 seconds left before halftime. The Texans cut the lead to 27-26, but EMCC outscored SPC 9-3 to take their largest lead, 36-29, at halftime.
EMCC held South Plains to just 29 percent (12 of 41) from the field in the first half.
“Coming back from the half, I told my assistant (Billy Begley) I was worried whether we could get enough going consistently on offense to hold them off and win the game,” White said.
SPC used an 18-4 spurt to open the second half to take a 47-40 lead six minutes into the half. However, the Region 23 champions and three-time NJCAA tournament participants regrouped to tie the score at 49 on a long 3-pointer by D.J. Evans midway through the half.
Following another tie at 51, EMCC’s Tradarrius McPhearson nailed a triple to give the Lions a 54-52 lead with 8:41 remaining. After SPC added a pair of free throws to create another deadlock, reserve forward Lakin Ford nailed a key 3-pointer for EMCC to give the Lions new-found momentum with 7:28 left in the game.
But the Lions didn’t score for the next five minutes and missed six free throws. SPC’s Stanton Kidd then took over, scoring nine of his game-high 20 points in the game-changing, three-minute stretch. Kidd’s final bucket in the run – a 3-pointer with 1:49 left – all but sealed the contest for the Texans (33-0).
“The missed free throws affected us mentally on the other end because it takes your spirit away from you,” White added.
The Lions missed 11 of 13 free throws in the second half, including 10 straight. EMCC was 5 of 20 from the free-throw line.
Evans and Borchert led EMCC with 13 points apiece, while Ford added 11 off the bench.
Along with Kidd’s game-high 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting, SPC received 11 points and 10 rebounds from Yanick Moreira.
“South Plains is No. 1 in the country for a reason,” White said. “They’re from a very tough league that has had teams in the national championship game five straight years. They’re a great team and they’re battle-tested.
“As for us, we had a couple of bad minutes there in the beginning of the second half, but we competed, played hard and we didn’t back down. We proved in the first half we could guard them and compete with them.”
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