Wolves bag first win

Published 6:00 am Tuesday, November 13, 2007

WESSON — The Copiah-Lincoln Community College Wolves earnedtheir first win of the 2007-08 campaign Monday night in MullenGymnasium. The Wolfpack overcame Mississippi Delta CommunityCollege’s Trojans with a hard-fought 59-58 win.

With the win, Co-Lin improves to 1-2.

Co-Lin travels to Clarksdale Thursday to take on Coahoma. Thewomen’s game tips off at 6 p.m., followed by the men’s game at8.

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The Wolfpack jumped out to an early 7-0 lead. It appeared thatCo-Lin would be off to the races. MDCC would get the hot hand andfound themselves up by 4 points, 17-13 early in the first half.

Co-Lin head coach Dennis Sims saw 5 lead changes and 2 deadlocksin the opening half. Trent Hutchin, a 6-foot freshman from BatonRouge, La., sacked 4 treys in the first 20 minutes. Turnovers atinopportune times in the half allowed MDCC to claim a 38-31 lead athalftime. Eight different Trojans got on the scoreboard.

MDCC, coached by Derrick Fears, dominated the boards in thefirst half with a 15-13 advantage. The Trojans held a huge 6-2 edgeon the offensive glass, with 6 points coming on second chanceputback.

“We had some flat spots in the game tonight,” said Coach Sims.”We did not have it in our eyes.”

It appeared Sims’ word would come true in the opening moments ofthe second half. MDCC took their largest lead of the game at 42-31nearly 2 minutes into the second stanza.

After a Co-Lin timeout, the Wolfpack got the message from CoachSims. A 23-9 scoring spurt saw the Wolves claim a 54-51 lead with6:50 left in the game, on Hutchins’s sixth trey of the night. Itwould be a lead that they would not relinquish, but had to battleto the final buzzer to get the win.

“Our defense was the key in the second half,” commented Sims.”We shot the ball a lot better tonight.” The Wolfpack shot 44percent from the field (20 of 46) and 75 percent (12 of 16) fromthe charity stripe.

The Trojans cut their deficit a single point, 59-58 on afadeaway jumper by Indianola native Staddrick McDaniel with under aminute on the clock. Missed free throws and scoring opportunitiesby both teams led to a scoreless drought during the remainder ofthe game.

Hutchin led all scorers with 20 points (6 treys). GregTruvillion tossed in 18 points (13 in the second half) and grabbed8 rebounds. Corey London had 3 steals and dished out 4 assists.

Ted Washington and Walter Howard paced MDCC with 12 pointsapiece.