Indians roll to two-in-a-row with 88-61 win over Meridian

Indians roll to two-in-a-row with 88-61 win over Meridian
Adam Gore/LetsGoICC.com

FULTON, MS – The Itawamba Community College raced out to a 49-32 lead in the first half before picking up their second-straight win of the season with an 88-61 win over Meridian Community College on Thursday.

"We are getting better," said ICC head basketball coach Grant Pate. "We talked to the guys this week about the importance of building on our successes and focusing on how to keep improving as a basketball team because you can't be satisfied with what you did yesterday."

Freshman Johnthan McGee (Jackson) led the Indians with 18 points after connecting on 6-of-10 from the floor, including 2-of-5 from three, along with a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line.

"I felt like we played a good team game tonight with 11 guys putting points on the board," Pate commented. "We had guys that were able to come off the bench and give us a lot of intensity on defense that led to transition points that helped keep momentum on our side. We want to be a team that can establish ourselves on defense and have that success carry over to the offensive side of the floor."

Freshman Chris Harris (Starkville) scored 12 and sophomore Deontaye Ewing (Tupelo) added 11 points and a game-high 5 assists in the win.

"Deontaye got us going in transition and I felt like he did a good job knowing when to finish and when to set up his teammates on the break," Pate said. "We had 21 assists which created a lot of easy scoring opportunities and I thought guys like Chris did a great job of giving that extra effort and hustle we are looking for in our transition play."

Sophomore point guard Quintin Lee (Ripley, TN) also added 5 assists and a game-high 4 steals along with 7 points in the win.

"Q did a great job running the offense and getting us going on defense," said Pate. "It seemed like he was around the ball all night on both sides of the floor. We challenged him to be the player he was last season and I felt like he played with the most energy on both sides of the floor that we've seen out of him so far this season."

The Indians connected on 30-of-55 from the floor (54.5%), including going 9-of-20 (45%) from behind the arch.