Coahoma Tigers lose 79-77 in OT;
Lady Tigers’ lead crumbles in finale

CLARKSDALE – Although Coahoma’s Tigers and Lady Tigers showed off multi-talented arsenals at their hometown season opener against East Central Monday night, they came up short on both final scoreboards.

The Tigers lost 79-77 in overtime, and after leading the entire game, the Lady Tigers fell behind with seven minutes remaining for a finale 70-56 loss.

“I am pleased with our players,” commented CCC men’s coach Ira Peterson. “This was East Central’s fourth game and our first; we’re still working out the kinks, but we settled down and played well.”

Winning the tipoff, the Warriors capitalized on errors and scored six points before Tiger sharpshooter Donteeno Todd hit for two.

With 13 minutes remaining in the half, the Tigers were down 18-6; then 22-12 before coming alive.

With mighty Kelvin Miller of Shaw, heir to the aggressive rebounding kingdom of Tinsley “Provine” Miller, scoring back-to-back goals and Tony Payne of Memphis, JaMarquis Lewis of Rosedale fueling another Miller bucket, CCC braked its downward spiral and were down only 22-17.

Todd’s pass to Lewis for two points followed by his own triple tied the game at 22, and his second trey put CCC ahead 25-24.

The lead see-sawed with Tiger points scored by Roddick Brown and Turio Tumblin, both of Memphis and Se’Marcio Bailey of Clarksdale.

At halftime, CCC was ahead 37-36, but Todd picked up his third foul, and his fourth came asap in the second half.

Igniting bleacher stomping was a steal and dunk by Bailey followed by Miller’s two-points and a triple by Lewis to put Coahoma up 46-42.

Although the Tigers led as much as seven points, East Central would not go away; mighty Miller picked up his fourth foul, and time ran out with game tied at 70.

In overtime, fierce competition continued with timeouts called at 18.1 seconds remaining; 7.9 seconds left and zero with CCC shooting for a tie.

Leading the scoring for the Tigers was Tony Payne with 15 points; Kelvin Miller, 14; Se’Marcio Bailey, 12; JaMarquis Lewis, 10; Donteeno Todd and Khiry Glenn, 8 each; Turio Tumblin, 6; Eric Beamon and Roddick Brown, 2 each.

In the first game, Lady Tiger Kyla Winford of Greenville immediately scored three goals and Corlissa Pope of Armwood added another for a 8-4 lead over the Lady Warriors.

Midway through the first half, East Central tied at 16, but Coahoma dominated action with steals by Eureka Nunnally of Craigmont and Jonnetta Robinson of Coahoma County, rebounds by Marcedes Morrow of Tunica, and points by Pope, Malea Malone of Germantown .

The Lady Tigers were ahead seven points: 30-23, but ECCC whittled it down to 37-33 at halftime with two key CCC players: Nakita Kimble of Charleston and Nunnally charged with three fouls each.

Repeating their aggressive first half pace, Winford nailed a pass to Pope for a layup to go ahead 42-35, and Nunnally drove for two and a 47-41 score.

However ECCC persevered to a 51 tie.

After Lady Warrior Yolanda Jones sank a triple to take the lead, Coahoma’s women had trouble inbounding the ball; Nunnally fouled out of the game, and ECCC hit another trey to increase their lead 61-52.

Leading the scoring for Coahoma were Kyla Winford and Corlissa Pope each with 11 points; Malea Malone with 10; Eureka Nunnally, 7; Jonetta Robinson and Marcedes Morrow, 6 each; Jasmine Walker, 3; and Nakita Kimble, 2.