Lady Wolves in region finals

Published 7:45 pm Thursday, March 4, 2010

CLINTON – The Co-Lin Lady Wolves placed four players in doublefigures Wednesday afternoon on their way to beating the ItawambaLady Indians 66-51 in the semifinals of the Region 23 NJCAATournament at A. E. Wood Coliseum on the campus of MississippiCollege.

In tonight’s women’s title game, Co-Lin meets Baton Rouge (La.) at6 p.m. Baton Rouge came back to beat East Mississippi 78-71 inWednesday’s other women’s semifinals game.

In first game of the season in the Southwest Tournament, Co-Linbeat Baton Rouge 84-57.

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At 8, Itawamba squares off against East Mississippi for the men’stitle. In Wednesday’s men’s semis, Itawamba eliminated Pearl River73-63 and East Mississippi bounced Hinds 81-74 in overtime.

Co-Lin 66, Itawamba 51

Powering the Lady Wolves (27-1) with 16 points, 9 rebounds and 7assists was sophomore forward Rachel Vigers. Latoria Holder andBrandi Simmons fired in 14 points apiece. Nadia Collins netted 10points. Tops off the backboards with 15 rebounds was Shareka Huntfollowed by Simmons with 12 rebounds.

“Both teams struggled offensively,” said Co-Lin women’s coach GwynYoung after the win. “In the second half, we did a better jobdefensively. We made our shots.”

The Lady Wolves led the Lady Indians 31-26 at the half. In thefirst five minutes of the game, Co-Lin led Itawamba 4-0 before theLady Indians scored their first basket. Minutes later, Co-Lin’sRokeyla Adams suffered a bad ankle sprain and had to leave thegame. Nadia Collins replaced Adams and drew praise fromYoung.

“Nadia came in and did a good job for Adams,” added Young.

In the second half, Co-Lin opened with a 10-2 run to take a 41-28lead with 15:58 remaining in the game. Itawamba cut the deficit to6 points, 47-41, with 10:50 on the clock but the Lady Wolves wenton a 7-3 run and pushed their lead to 10 points, 54-44 with 5:34remaining in the game.

The Lady Indians (19-10), coached by Nanci Gray, were led by EbonyWilliams with 14 points. Destini Shannon fired in 9 points andgrabbed 8 rebounds. Anna Dill added 8 points and 6 rebounds.

Baton Rouge 76, East Miss. 71

Powering Baton Rouge with 21 points each were G.G. Williams andSedreka Plummer.

East Mississippi got 22 points from Mantika Hull. Eryn Grayfinished with 16 points followed by Natalie Tate with 11.

“Baton Rouge is playing better,” said Young who scouted many oftheir players while they were seniors in high school. “Hopefully wewill get Adams back.”