Indians take care of Northeast, 81-60
Adam Gore/LetsGoICC.com
BOONEVILLE, MS – The ICC Indians broke a four-game losing streak with an 81-60 win over Northeast Mississippi Community College on Thursday.
"We've really been focusing on being aggressive on defense and rebounding," said Coach Grant Pate. "I feel like the guys really bought in to that during practice and sometimes leave that intensity on the practice floor, but tonight our guys really carried it over with a lot of determination to win the game."
Up 37-26 at the break, a three by Dee Gates put the Indians (3-4, 1-0 MACJC North) up 48-31 before cruising to the 21-point victory over the Tigers (3-7, 0-1 MACJC North)
Gates finished with 8 points and four assists.
"It's a challenge to win on the road in this league," Pate said. "I thought the guys worked well together and starting to really come together as a team both on and off the court."
Alex Anderson (Memphis, TN) scored a game-high 20 points with Tyrone Wooten (Memphis, TN) adding 11 off the bench along with 10 points and 4 assists from Johnthan McGee (Raymond).
"I thought we got a lot of production out of everyone," said Pate. "We had a lot of guys put points on the board, grab rebounds, and create scoring opportunities with a lot of smart, unselfish play… hopefully we can build on tonight's performance and keep working on getting better from week to week."
Tory Rice (Starkville) grabbed a game-high 9 rebounds with Tay Crawford (Aberdeen) and Demarcius Bracey (Ruleville Central) each had 8 boards in the win.
"We knew we were going to have play smart and be physical against their big guys in the paint and I really feel like we were able to do that throughout the entire game," Pate said.
Rice scored 6, Crawford 2, and Bracey added 4 points for the Indians.
The Indians will be back in action on Monday as they stay in division play against Coahoma Community College (1-6, 0-1 MACJC North).
"We want to enjoy this win, but we don't want to enjoy it to the point that we don't move forward," commented Pate. "Coahoma is a very athletic team and is going to fight you really hard for the entire game, but I feel like our guys will be ready to play."
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