CLINTON — Crashing the backboards and taking care of businessMonday night, the Co-Lin Lady Wolves defeated East Central 63-52 inthe opening round of the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament in A.E. WoodColiseum. Co-Lin sophomore guard Jennifer Carter’s 13 points led 4players in double figures as the Lady Wolves advanced toWednesday’s semifinals on the Mississippi College campus.

The Lady Wolves (18-7) will play Southern-Shreveport at 12:30p.m. Northeast plays Northwest at 2:30 in the other semifinalsgame. The regional championship in Thursday night at 6.

In yesterday’s other women’s games, state champion Northeasteliminated Gulf Coast 91-63, Southern-Shreveport edged Meridian69-68 and Northwest beat Holmes 88-77.

Four opening round men’s games are on tap today. Co-Lin playsBossier Parish (La.) at 8 tonight. State champion Homes meets GulfCoast at 12:30 p.m., Pearl River faces Itawamba at 2:30, andNorthwest tackles East Central at 6.

The Lady Wolves, playing their fourth straight road game,outrebounded East Central 41-24 last night. They got 10 reboundsand 12 points from freshman post Erica Trahan.

Sophomore center Anna Autman said the Lady Wolves were focusedfor the contest. They are hoping for a title rematch with Northeastafter losing to the Lady Tigers in last Thursday’s statechampionship game at Senatobia.

“We came out ready to play and played hard on defense,” saidAutman, a 6-foot post from Brookhaven. “As long as we play hard ondefense, we should do well. We want to play Northeast again.”

Carter and Trahan were joined in double figures by forwardDominique Whitfield and playmaker Nikki Williams with 10 pointseach. Whitfield and Ashley Murphy each had 7 rebounds.

Co-Lin head coach Gwyn Young said he was happy with his team’sperformance. “For the whole game, we had a really good effort. Wemade some mistakes but we played hard.

“We didn’t do a good enough job guarding the inbounds play andwe need to shoot our free throws better. Carter did a good jobcoming in for us.”

At the free throw line, Young watched his team make just 14 of28.

East Central (17-10) almost capitalized on Co-Lin’s inaccuracyat the charity line. Co-Lin missed 9 of 16 free throws in the last5 minutes of the game as the Lady Warriors reduced a 17-point,54-37 deficit, to 8 points. A trey by ECCC guard LaSandra Harrisoncut Co-Lin’s lead to 8 points, 55-47, with 1:45 left to play.

Co-Lin had boasted a 54-37 advantage when Carter swished abaseline jumper with 6:35 left to play.

ECCC coach Billy Smith put his team in a do-or-die full-courtpress in the closing minutes. However, the Warriors were unable toavoid losing a third close game to Co-Lin. The Lady Wolves hadprevailed 62-59 Jan. 10 at Wesson and 57-56 in overtime on Feb. 2,at Decatur.

Co-Lin increased a 25-21 halftime lead to 10 points, 37-27, whenWhitfield scored inside off an assist from Murphy, with13:35left.

Valerie Harris, a 5-8 freshman fro Lake, led East Central andall scorers with 18 points. Shannon Lloyd, a 6-2 sophomore centerfrom Collinsville (West Lauderdale) added 15 points and 10rebounds.