Booneville, Miss. – Chase Carroll and his fellow teammates at the guard position lifted Northeast Mississippi Community College to one of its most impressive showcases on the basketball court in the past decade.
The Tigers used lengthy scoring spurts in each half against Martin Methodist (Tenn.) College's junior varsity squad to capture an outstanding 95-62 victory during a rare Saturday morning affair inside legendary Bonner Arnold Coliseum.
"I really felt like we were energetic," said Carroll. "The energy had to come from the bench and I think we really just combined together to cheer on and be supportive of each other."
Carroll shot 50 percent from the field and tallied a career-high 11 points during his inaugural start at Northeast. He also helped the Tigers pull away in a game that featured three ties and five lead changes within the initial eight minutes.
Wesley Harlan's trey gave the RedHawks an 18-17 advantage with 12:07 remaining until halftime. However, Chris Echols grabbed his own miss and then put back the offensive rebound to begin Northeast's first key run of the contest.
Antonio Dodson connected from long range and Jack Nichols accounted for an old-fashioned three-point play in the middle of the Tigers' rally. Chris Ward and Carroll concluded the streak of 15 unanswered points with back-to-back baskets to put Northeast ahead 31-18.
Martin Methodist brought its deficit under double digits once following a make by Trey Burney. But buckets in the final 90 seconds by Al Azulphar, Dimario Jackson, Echols and Nichols pushed the Tigers' lead to 49-34 at the break.
Azulphar was dominant for Northeast in another 15-0 surge. He blocked an attempt on one end of the floor and had a layup off an offensive board on the other side to spark the Tigers' second major burst of the matchup.
Corinth natives Raheem Sorrell and Desmin Harris each had field goals during the stretch in which the RedHawks were held scoreless for over five minutes. Harris' lay in off a steal and an assist by Azulphar capped the run and extended Northeast's advantage to 68-38 at the 10:26 mark.
Carroll put the finishing touches on the win late in the game by draining two consecutive shots from beyond the arc. He was fouled on his last attempt and hit the free throw to complete an uncommon four-point play.
"I credit our guys for having some intensity early and getting after it," Tigers head coach Cord Wright said. "I tell our guys all the time that if you make your free throws and layups then you'll win a bunch of games and we did that today."
Azulphar topped Northeast with the finest performance off the bench in his phenomenal career. He had a team-high 16 points with five boards, three assists and two blocks.
Dodson recorded the best outing of his freshman campaign to date as well. He registered 14 points on 5 of 10 shooting and tied Azulphar plus two other Tigers for the most rebounds in the contest with five.
"We looked for each other instead of being selfish and fed off each other," said Dodson. "The first couple of games I was kinda getting into the faster pace, but now I'm getting more comfortable with what coach is expecting of me."
Jackson and Sorrell rounded out the double figure scorers for Northeast with 12 points apiece. Davis Anderton paced Martin Methodist and all athletes in the matchup with 25 points.
The Tigers held the upper hand in almost every statistical category during the first meeting between these two institutions since January 20, 1998. Northeast was plus-12 in rebounds and had nine fewer turnovers than the RedHawks.
The battle in the post belonged to the Tigers as well. Northeast outscored its guest 54-26 in the paint and also compiled 22 second-chance points compared to three for Martin Methodist.
"The emphasis of the game was to get up and pressure them," Wright said. "We want to cause some problems and create some easy buckets."
The Tigers only missed one free throw during the entire contest and shot 94.4 percent as a unit. Nichols guided that effort and was perfect on five attempts at the charity stripe.
Northeast's margin of victory against Martin Methodist was its biggest since claiming identical 31-point triumphs versus Dyersburg State (Tenn.) Community College last season and Northwest-Shoals (Ala.) Community College in November 2005.
This was also the second largest point total for the Tigers since Wright took the reins of the program one year ago. Northeast scored 96 in its win over Dyersburg State last November.
The Tigers open their final week before the Thanksgiving holiday with a visit to Volunteer State (Tenn.) Community College on Monday, November 17. The doubleheader tips off with women's action at 5:30 p.m. from the Pickel Field House.