Eagles hold off Lions’ rally

By Rocky Higginbotham/ sports editor

With two players sitting out for disciplinary reasons and another injured, Meridian Community College needed someone to take up the slack Monday against rival East Mississippi.

Turns out, the Eagles had more than enough willing participants.Dexter Leflore pumped in a game-high 30 points and had a wide-ranging cast of supporters, and MCC knocked off the visiting Lions 85-78 in junior-college basketball action at Meridian’s Graham Gymnasium.

“He had a huge game for us,” MCC coach George Brooks said of Leflore, who scored his team’s final nine points of the contest. “He stepped up and a lot of guys stepped up. I’m proud of them.”

The win improved Meridian to 2-1 on the year, while East Mississippi fell to 0-5. The Eagles go to Coahoma Saturday, while the Lions are at home Thursday against another rival — East Central.

MCC started Monday night’s game with a bang, getting slam dunks from Leflore and Chris Leggett and 3-pointers from Leflore and Regis Huddleston in a game-opening 14-4 run.

After EMCC went 5 minutes, 19 seconds without scoring, MCC capped off another big run with a steal and slam from Leflore — putting the Eagles ahead 26-6 with 6:17 left in the first half.

Freshman guard Rodricus Hopson of Kemper County scored eight straight points off the bench for EMCC, and the Lions whittled their deficit to 12 before a couple of putbacks from Santez Johnson helped MCC to a 38-21 lead at halftime.

The Eagles led by 20 again in the second half, but things got hairy for MCC down the stretch.

East Mississippi got within 76-71 on a 3-pointer from ex-West Lauderdale standout Mark Ford with 1:40 left, and got as close as five on three more occasions before it was said and done.

“They did a great job fighting to get back in it and I knew they would,” Brooks said of the Lions.But Leflore hit 5-of-6 free throws in the final 25 seconds and former Meridian High standout Maurice Naylor owned the glass down the stretch to help seal the win.

Naylor, five weeks removed from meniscus surgery, finished with a team-high 12 rebounds — 11 of them in the second half.

“We didn’t even expect him to play,” Brooks said. “That just shows his true character. He saw his teammates needed him to play and he gutted it out for us tonight. That’s what kind of player he is.”

Leflore added seven boards and three steals, Santez Johnson had 16 points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots and Keith James came off the bench to score 14 points for MCC. Regis Huddleston scored nine points and Naylor chipped in six.

Hopson led EMCC with 16 points, while Daniel Huggins and Jon Estes had 14 each, Mark Ford 13, Alex Ford 11 and Cornelius Miles eight. Huggins and Miles are former Meridian High standouts.

Alex Ford, a former Northeast Lauderdale standout who played at MCC last year, had a game-high 18 rebounds to lead the Lions. Huggins had five steals.