Lady Indians win 8th straight over Northeast
Adam Gore/LetsGoICC.com
BOONEVILLE, MS -- The ICC Lady Indians got things going in the second half to open MACJC North Division play with a 68-59 win over Northeast Mississippi Community College on Thursday.
"I didn't think we played with much intensity in the first half," said Coach Nanci Gray. "We were able to heat up a little bit on offense in the second half and were able to control the boards a lot better."
Trailing 36-27 at the break, the Lady Indians (4-3, 1-0 MACJC North) got five points in the first 25 seconds of the second half from Leslie Robinson (Belmont).
"We needed to get out to a good start and Leslie made that happen for us," commented Gray. "She is so calm and so cool when she is on the floor. She does a great job of making good decisions and if you leave her open she can score. When she does that it forces teams to get out of their defensive game plan and really makes things difficult for them."
A jumper by Jayla Chills (Ripley) tied the game 41-41 at the 12:53 mark and gave the Lady Indians the lead for good on a pair of free throws on the next offensive possession.
Jasmine Golden (Center Hill) steal and lay-up gave the Lady Indians their biggest lead of the night, 55-48, over Northeast (3-5, 0-1 MACJC) before ICC held on for the nine-point victory.
Latoya Collins (Forest Hill) scored a team-high 15 while Lytia Coleman (Memphis, TN) totaled her third double-double of the season with 12 points and 14 rebounds in the victory.
"Toya and Tia have been there for us night in and night out," said Gray. "Toya did a great job of finding the open spots to floor to be able to get us going offensively in the second and I thought Tia did a great job controlling the boards on both sides of the floor."
LaNikki McMillian (Pontotoc) had 10 points and 5 rebounds for the Lady Indians.
"We been waiting to see that out of Lanikki," Gray said. "She had a really good game and it opened up things for everyone else on the floor."
The win was the Lady Indians' eight-straight win over Northeast.
The Lady Indians will take on Coahoma Community College (1-5, 0-1 MACJC North) in their final division game of the 2013 half of the season.
"Coahoma is a dangerous team that is always athletic and presents a lot of problems on both sides of the floor," said Gray. "We've got to be focused and ready to play against another tough division game."
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