Booneville, Miss. – Thursday's matchup versus Northwest Mississippi Community College presented El Paso Johnson-Pitts with another chance to showcase his talents against former teammates from the Memphis, Tenn., metro area.
Johnson-Pitts did just that by recording career-highs in three statistical categories for Northeast Mississippi Community College in a close 77-71 loss to the Rangers at Bonner Arnold Coliseum.
The 6-5, 202-pound freshman played with Northwest's De'Sean Dockery, Aston Morton and Gavin Robinson during Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) summer competition.
Johnson-Pitts, a freshman out of Millington Central (Tenn.) High School, got the better of the trio of Rangers this outing by scoring 18 points and grabbing eight rebounds in 35 minutes of action.
"I had to keep the ball under my hand and finish at the rim," he said. "We're a lot better than we were at the beginning of the year. We've come together as one team with a positive attitude."
It was the Rangers, though, that started quickly out of the gate. A breakaway dunk by Robinson put Northwest up 20-7 with 10:24 to play in the first half.
Following a timeout by Northeast coach Cord Wright, the Tigers regrouped and cut their deficit back under 10 points with a Cannon Edwards trey and Al Azulphar layup.
The Rangers (10-7, 6-2) held a 34-27 advantage at the break before Northeast fought back to within one possession of the lead at the 12:10 mark of the second with an old-fashioned three-point play from Dimario Jackson.
Northwest again crept ahead by as many as eight, but a Ranger turnover and subsequent Edwards make from behind the arc off an inbounds pass put the Tigers down just 71-69 with 12 seconds showing on the clock.
However, the Rangers hit each of their six free throw attempts from that moment to secure the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) North Division victory.
"We just keep giving ourselves chances to win games and hopefully we'll break through here soon," Wright said. "I don't expect them to give up. They're good character kids and they keep fighting. That's all you can ask and is a credit to them.
"That has nothing to do with anything else except extreme effort. That's just them being good people."
Azulphar tied Johnson-Pitts with a team-high 18 points and was one rebound shy of his fifth double-double of the season.
Jackson notched 13 points and was a perfect 5 of 5 from the charity stripe. The Brusly, La., native is fifth in the MACJC in free throw percentage at 80.3.
Edwards rounded out the double-digit scorers for the Tigers (4-15, 1-7) with 12 on a 4 of 7 night from beyond the three-point line.
Tristan Moore dropped in a game-best 25 points while Rashon Coleman tallied 13 to top the Rangers. Northeast outrebounded its guests by a plus-eight margin with Reggie Patterson adding seven to the effort.
The Tigers were 52.1 percent from the field and shot an amazing 63 percent after halftime. Northeast held Northwest to a yearly-low of 14.3 percent on its three-point tries.
(W) Northwest 71, Northeast 66
Teresa Mays returned to the starting lineup with a bang against the Lady Rangers by scoring 16 points, including a 3 of 4 mark from three-point range.
"I feel like I did good," Mays said. "We shot the ball well and then we executed and passed it to wide open teammates."
The Lady Tigers (6-13, 1-7) dished out 15 assists with Antionette Riddle contributing six and Kiki Gwyn with five.
Riddle hit a career milestone shortly into the contest. Her first basket of the game, a jumper with 15:57 remaining in the opening half, accounted for the 500th point of her illustrious career at Northeast.
"Scoring 500 points over two years is a big deal," said Lady Tiger head coach Brian Alexander. "That's a credit to her work ethic and the type of player she is. We're extremely proud of her."
A back-and-forth first period saw five ties and two lead changes. Four straight treys from the combination of Gwyn, Mays and Riddle created some separation for the Lady Tigers.
Before the clock hit all zeros, Northeast put together a 13-1 run over the last 3 minutes, 7 seconds of the half. A Riddle steal and Gwyn basket capped the spurt as the horn sounded to give the Lady Tigers a 42-27 lead at the break.
Northeast extended its advantage to 45-28 following a Daisha Williams field goal with 18:01 left to play, but a Kristina Mays trey shortly after that signaled the start of a hot shooting half for Northwest.
The Lady Rangers scored 18 of the next 20 points over a span of seven minutes. A Tenesha Woods lay in gave Northwest (11-5, 5-3) its initial lead of the half at 63-62.
A Mays bucket pushed the Lady Tigers back ahead as late as the 1:38 mark, but Northwest scored the last six points to clinch the triumph.
Riddle joined Mays in double figures with 17 points and a team-best eight boards.
Northeast recovered from the below normal shooting performance last Thursday at Itawamba Community College and knocked down a season-high 50 percent of its three-point attempts. The Lady Tigers shot 43.4 percent from the floor overall, their third-best total of the campaign.
Carshava Sutton recorded a double-double with 22 points and 15 rebounds. Woods (14) and Halle Knowles (13) paced the Lady Rangers as well.
After taking the rest of the week off, the Lady Tigers and Tigers return to action next Monday, February 10 when East Mississippi Community College visits Booneville. The women's matchup is slated for a 5:30 p.m. start with the men to follow.