Booneville, Miss. – First-year head coach Cord Wright hopes the Northeast Mississippi Community College men's basketball team learns some valuable lessons from Tuesday's exhibition outing.
Wright saw many areas the Tigers need improvement in during a 103-88 loss to Blue Mountain College at Bonner Arnold Coliseum to close the preseason schedule.
"At this point in the year, offensively you can handle some things not being crisp," said Wright. "Defensively, tonight was quite frankly a little bit embarrassing. At times the effort was there, but part of effort is execution.
"The positive side of it is it's all correctable and we'll start tomorrow correcting those issues."
Northeast and the Toppers participated in two regulation twenty-minute halves as well as a shortened ten-minute quarter. The score was reset after each half concluded.
Blue Mountain jumped out in front by double digits early. Back-to-back three-point baskets by Stefan Vukovic and CJ Barnes put the Toppers up 21-8 with 11:35 to play in the opening period.
Cannon Edwards got the Tigers as close as nine points moments later following a successful shot from behind the arc. Romeo Johnson added two treys in the final minute, but Blue Mountain maintained its advantage and entered the first intermission ahead 47-36.
Both teams went back-and-forth following the break and exchanged the lead twelve times during the second.
The Tigers went ahead 22-21 on a nice play by Dexter Stafford. The freshman from Biggersville stole the ball on the Northeast side of the court, made a move around a defender and hit a jumper while being fouled.
However, that highlight was the last for Northeast in the second. The Toppers, led by two Shane Butler baskets, went on an 11-0 run over a period of two minutes to pull away.
Edwards finally ended the Northeast drought with a three-point make, but the damage had been done and Blue Mountain claimed the half by a score of 39-31.
The Tiger big men got into the action to help win the abbreviated quarter 21-17. Ben Seely and El Paso Johnson-Pitts connected on three easy layups down the stretch after nice assists by Northeast guards, including Darius Leach.
Marcus Hogan led the Tigers with 13 points. Edwards and Johnson added 12 apiece in a contest where Wright played his entire bench to get some game experience under their belts.
"I'm trying early to give everybody an opportunity to show me that they can play or show me what they can do," the Northeast headman said.
Devante Pulliam and Barnes both tallied a game-high 14 points for the Toppers.
Wright and his Northeast squad have just over two weeks of practice remaining before the 2013-14 regular season begins on Saturday, November 2 at Dyersburg State (Tenn.) Community College. A 6 p.m. tipoff is scheduled at Lannom Gym.