Eagles fall to Co-Lin

By Jeff Edwards / assistant sports editor
The Meridian Star

The Meridian Community College Lady Eagles hoped to use their upset victory over 18th-ranked Jones Junior College to springboard their way back into the South Division race. However, a bad start to each half against Copiah-Lincoln Thursday evening stymied any chance of a victory and sent the Lady Eagles back to a .500 record in the division with an 88-75 loss.

“I had hoped the team would come out strong and we didn’t do that,” Lady Eagles coach Hilary Allen said. “It’s discouraging to not be able to do that when you’re playing at home.”

The Lady Wolves, who brought a No. 12 national ranking, jumped out to a quick 10-4 lead in the first two-and-a-half minutes before MCC settled down and climbed back into it.

Co-Lin kept a consistent lead the entire first half, but never led by more than seven points. MCC found itself down six points before Hilal Yildirim canned a 3-pointer with 2 minutes left to cut the lead to 33-30. After a Co-Lin basket, MCC’s Holly Dial hit a runner with 9.5 seconds left to cut the Lady Wolves’ lead to 35-32 at halftime.

However, whatever momentum Meridian had going into halftime evaporated in the first 45 seconds of the second half. Co-Lin’s Nikki Williams scored the first basket of the half 25 seconds in after an MCC turnover. The Lady Eagles turned the ball over again on their next possession and the Lady Wolves capitalized with another basket to give them a seven-point lead again.

Allen called a timeout to try and settle his team down but it was too late. Co-Lin outscored the Lady Eagles 19-9 in the first 6 minutes of the second half to pull out to a 13-point lead.Meridian clawed to within single digits a couple of times in the remainder of the game, but the Lady Wolves always had an answer.

Allen said the difference in the game was MCC’s lack of offensive rebounding in the second half after holding their own in the first half of play.

“We got some offensive rebounding in the first half to keep the game close,” Allen said. “We stopped doing that in the second half. (Co-Lin) made some adjustments at halftime that made a difference.”

Co-Lin dominated the low post the entire game, with Erica Trahan pouring in 21 points, despite sitting out a large part of the first half with foul trouble.

“She had a big game,” Allen said. “We’ve not very big and when the opposing team gets a post player with skills it’s going to hurt us. We try to counteract that by doubling down with our guards but they didn’t do a very good job of doing that tonight.”

The Lady Eagles dropped to 12-8 overall and 2-2 in division play with the loss. They were led by NaDosha Strickland with 19 points and Anesia McBride with 16. Dial pitched in with 15 while Yildirim scored 10.

In addition to Trahan’s 21 points, Co-Lin got 22 from Williams.

“We had played so well the last four games that I couldn’t wait to come out here and play tonight,” Allen said. “I was hopeful we’d come out of here successful but that wasn’t the case.”

Co-Lin men 85
Meridian 78

The Eagles have made a habit of losing a lead this season. Against Co-Lin, they tried the opposite approach: Get down by a large margin and mount a furious comeback.

It still resulted in a loss.

Meridian trailed by as many as 20 points in the second half of the game before rallying to make the Wolves sweat before they were able to pull out a win.

“We’ve got to play all 40 minutes with the same intensity,” MCC coach George Brooks said. “We’ve had three close losses. We’ve got to give a consistent effort for 40 minutes and we haven’t been able to achieve that.”

After holding a 41-30 lead at halftime, Co-Lin took its biggest lead of the night at 64-44 with 12:02 remaining. However, that’s when the Eagles woke up and started playing.

Meridian cut the lead to 74-66 when the Eagles’ Dexter Leflore converted a three-point play with 5:20 left.After a Co-Lin basket, Chris Leggett scored the next four points for MCC to trim the lead to 76-70 with 2:10 remaining.

Leflore then canned a jumper and, after a Co-Lin free throw, Keith James hit two free throws to cut the lead to 79-74 with 47 seconds left.

Co-Lin missed two more free throws on its next possession and James nailed a baseline jumper with 29.3 seconds left to trim the deficit to three points. However, that’s as close as they got.

Co-Lin’s Greg Truvillion hit eight consecutive free throws in the final half minute to seal the win for the Wolves and drop MCC to 4-11 on the season.

“I was pleased to see we didn’t give up,” Brooks said. “But we’ve got to play with consistent effort the whole game. Hopefully we’ll be able to do it next game."

Santez Johnson led the Eagles with 16 points while Leggett had 15 and James 13. Co-Lin was led by Truvillion with 22 points and Charles Lewis with 19.