MCC, ECCC to compete in Region 23 Tourney

By Jeff Edwards / assistant sports editor
The Meridian Star

After coming up on the wrong end of a three-way tie and being left out of the MACJC State Tournament, the Meridian Community College Lady Eagles thought their season might have come to an end.

However, the Lady Eagles got a reprieve when they qualified for the Region 23 Tournament which begins Tuesday at Mississippi College.

“It was pretty tough (waiting to see if we qualified),” Lady Eagle coach Hilary Allen said. “We didn’t have any control over it. But we did what we had to do in the regular season to make the tournament.”

MCC isn’t the only local team the make the Region 23 tourney. The Lady Warriors of East Central Community College also qualified for the tournament after falling in the first round of the state tourney to eventual state champion Northeast Mississippi.

“Anytime we make a regional we feel like we’ve had a pretty decent season,” ECCC coach Billy Smith said. “We’re happy to still be playing at this point.”

Meridian brings an overall record ot 15-10 into the tournament while East Central is 16-9.

Both teams face extremely tough tests in their opening games. East Central will take on nationally-ranked MACJC state runnerup Co-Lin Tuesday at 2 p.m. while Meridian will face MACJC State Champion Northeast in the following game at 6 p.m.

“I got a chance to watch Northeast play in the championship game and they are an outstanding team,” Allen said. “They won the championship going away. We are looking forward to the challenge.”

Neither team has played in awhile, with MCC missing the state tournament entirely and East Central playing just one game. Both coaches have to be wary of the layoff affecting their teams.

“It’s an unusual situation,” Allen said. “Twelve days between games is unusual for us. We have had great practices and come up with gamelike situations but Northeast played three games last week and we didn’t play any. We haven’t done that before.”

Smith said he hasn’t spent the week working on new things, just continuing with fundamentals.

“At this point, if you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s hard to learn anything new,” Smith said. “We’ve had a week to prepare and are going the the basics and conditioning work.”

Both coaches think their respective teams have a chance to pull upsets in the tournament. Five of East Central’s nine losses were by two points or less while MCC suffered two overtime losses and two more losses by four points or less.

“We feel that finishing in a tie for third in the South Division makes us one of the top teams in the region,” Allen said of his Lady Eagles. “It’s time for us to go play like we’re one of the top teams in the region.”

Smith thinks that his girls have a chance to surprise some people in the tournament.

“We’re glad to be playing still,” Smith said. “Now our goal is to win three in a row and make it to the national tournament.”