Indians defeat East Central from first win of the year

Indians defeat East Central from first win of the year
Adam Gore/LetsGoICC.com

FULTON, MS – Sophomore guard Deontaye Ewing (Tupelo) scored a game-high 26 points to help lead Itawamba Community College to their first win of the season with a 76-68 win over East Central Community College on Thursday.

"Your first win as is always a big one," said ICC men's head basketball coach Grant Pate. "We got a great all-around effort out of everyone tonight. Deontaye really stepped up tonight when we needed him, but I thought it was a hard-fought effort from all the guys down the stretch to be able to earn this win."

Trailing 41-25 at the break, East Central outscored the Indians 43-35 in the second half before ICC iced the game away from the free throw line connecting on five-straight attempts in the final minute of the game.

The Indians made 14-of-17 (82.4%) from the charity strip on the night.

"I felt like we showed a lot of maturity down the stretch," Pate commented. "I thought we did a good job taking care of the basketball and making free throws to keep from giving them an opportunity to win the game late."

Johnthan McGee (Jackson) scored 12 while fellow freshmen Jacques Johnson (Jackson) had 11 and Chris Harris (Starkville) added 10 points in the victory.

"We are going to have to have our freshmen to grow up quickly for us to be this season," said Pate. "I felt like guys like Johnthan, Jacq and Chris did a great job scoring for us, but we had guys come off the bench to provide us with a lot of solid minutes."

The victory was the first for Coach Pate, who is in his first season as the Indians' head basketball coach.

"It feels good getting that monkey off our back," Pate commented on his first win as ICC head coach. "Now it's about taking what we learned from this win and use those things to continue to build and get better as the season goes on."

Aquill Baynard paced East Central with 22 while Hakeem Wesley added 15 points in the loss.