ELLISVILLE – The Jones County Junior College men's basketball team piled up some big numbers here Thursday night at A.B. Howard Gymnasium.
JCJC improved to 5-0 with a 109-80 decision over Itawamba Community College.
JCJC trailed 6-4 early, but went on a 9-0 run – capped by a Leito Holloway (Charlotte, North Carolina) 3-pointer to take a 13-6 lead with 15:36 left in the first half. ICC got within 24-19 with 9:21 left on a Quenten Taylor 3-pointer, but that was as close as they would get the rest of the game.
A Bruce Stevens (Bay Springs) layup ended a 16-4 spurt and gave Jones a 40-23 lead with 6:19 remaining in the first half. The Bobcats' longest lead of the half was 56-32 with 1:04 left in the half when Xavier Howard (Pearl) canned a 3-pointer from the right wing.
The Bobcats led 58-35 at halftime.
It was more of the same in the second half as Rickey Holden's  (Laurel) 3-pointer gave JCJC an 84-56 lead with 12:01 left. Holloway's third 3-pointer of the evening helped the Bobcats match its longest lead of the game at 107-73 with just less than two minutes to play.
Stevens led the Bobcats with 19 points, while Holloway added 18, Holden had 16, Tristin Walley (Hattiesburg) had 14 and David Davis (Purvis) added 13 points, including two spectacular dunks.
Walley finished the game with 9 rebounds and Stevens had 8 boards.
The Bobcats were 20-of-22 from the free throw line.
Martaveous McKnight led ICC, 1-3, with 17 points. Charles Brown and Taylor finished with 11 points each.
The Bobcats will now have Thanksgiving break and will not play again until Dec. 1 when they travel to Coahoma. The next home game for JCJC  will be on Dec. 5 when they open MACJC South Division play vs. Copiah-Lincoln.
Itawamba travels to Shelton State (Alabama) on Nov. 28.
 
Thursday's game
Ellisville
A.B. Howard Gymnasium
MEN
Jones County 109, Itawamba 80
Itawamba (1-3)         35 45 – 80
Jones County (5-0)  58 51 – 109
ITAWAMBA  (80) – Martaveous McKnight 17, Charles Brown 11, Quenten Taylor 11, Brian Halums 9, Eric Brown 6, Jason Smith 6, Tre Jenkins 6, Marcus Thomas 5, Jawon Smith 5, Tommy McCoy 2, EJ Fuller 2, Marcus Carouthers 0.
JONES COUNTY (109) – Bruce Stevens 19, Leito Holloway 18, Rickey Holden 16, Tristin Walley 14, David Davis 13. Xavier Howard 8, Enrique Milton 7, Maurice Dunlap 7, Marsellis Purvis 5, Omar Steele 2, Andre Tieu 0.