Bobcats Named MACCC Co-Champions

ELLISVILLE (via JCBobcats.com) – Jones College captured the 2023-24 MACCC Men's Basketball Championship with a thrilling, 67-64 victory over East Central here Thursday night before an enthusiastic crowd at A.B. Howard Gymnasium.
 
The Bobcats end regular season play with a 24-6 record, 11-3 in the conference. Jones and Northeast are both 11-3 in league play, but Jones dominated Northeast 86-51 in a regular season matchup on Feb. 26 and will earn the top seed in the Region 23 Tournament.
 
Jones will host the winner of Saturday's Baton Rouge/Copiah-Lincoln game at 6 p.m. on Monday, March 11 in the Region 23 quarterfinals. The semifinals and finals will be March 14-15 at Mississippi College.
 
It is the Bobcats' first conference title since the 2016-17 season and the seventh league championship in school history.
 
The Bobcats trailed for most of the game before mounting a comeback in the final minutes.
 
ECCC took a 57-49 lead with 6:46 left in the game when Fateh Bensalah hit a 3-pointer. 
 
The Bobcats then fought back and went ahead 60-59 with 3:43 to play on a Dimp Pernell (Horn Lake) layup. A fastbreak layup by LJ Hackman (Columbus) capped the 15-2 run and gave Jones a 64-59 lead with 2:40 remaining.
 
The Warriors got within 64-62 with 46 seconds left on a layup by Connor Rogers.
 
Trey Smith (Terry) then tipped in a missed shot with 19 seconds remaining to give Jones a 66-62 lead. Bensalah's tip-in on the other end made it 66-64 with six seconds to play and the Warriors called time out.
 
Jones inbounded the ball to Smith, who was quickly fouled with three seconds showing. He missed the first free throw, but made the second.
 
ECCC was able to get off a halfcourt shot at the buzzer, but it missed and the Bobcats had secured the championship.
 
Dimp Pernell had 20 points and seven rebounds. Hackman had 14 points, including a 10-of-13 night from the foul line, four assists and four steals. Ky Pernell had 14 points and five rebounds. Smith came off the bench to score eight points and grab seven rebounds.
 
Rogers led ECCC with 16 points. Bensalah had 14 points and 11 rebounds and Jay'Lan McNair had 12 points. 
 
Jones shot 39 percent from the floor and was just 2-of-14 from beyond the arc. They were 23-of-32 from the free throw line. The Warriors shot 43 percent and made 6-of-11 free throws.
 
ECCC outrebounded Jones, 39-35. Jones committed 15 turnovers and forced 19. 
 
The Warriors fell to 13-17 overall and 4-10 in the conference, but will be the No. 12 seed in the upcoming NJCAA Region 23 Tournament.