POPLARVILLE – No. 16 Pearl River took the lead for good just over two minutes into the game and went on to defeat Jones College 78-62 here Tuesday night at Marvin R. White Coliseum in the MACCC Tournament quarterfinals.
The Bobcats drop to 16-7 and will now play in the first round of the Region 23 Tournament on Feb. 28 vs. an undetermined opponent.
Jones scored the game's first five points and took its final lead of the night at 7-6 on a layup by
Caleb McGill (Petal) with 17:51 remaining in the first half. PRCC then went on a 14-2 run and went ahead 20-9 with 14:23 showing on a 3-pointer by Cameron Brown.
Earl Smith Jr.'s layup gave the Wildcats its largest lead of the first half at 34-18 with 3:16 remaining. PRCC led 37-27 at halftime.
The Wildcats then scored the first 13 points of the second half, taking a 50-27 lead with 16:41 to play on a Jaronn Wilkens' jumper. A Jaronn Wilkens' dunk with 9:05 left gave Pearl River its largest lead of the night at 65-41.
The Bobcats battled back and got within 70-56 on an
Ashton Campbell (Forrest County AHS) layup with 3:48 to play. Jones would get no closer than 14 the rest of the way.
Calvin Temple (Center Hill) led Jones with 19 points, with Campbell and
Decorian Payton (Center Hill) scoring 11 each and McGill adding 10.
Jabari Bowman (Warren Central) pulled down 15 rebounds and had four steals.
Cowandric Samuel (Jackson Callaway) had three assists.
Jarron Wilkens led five Wildcats in double figures with 15 points. Brown added 13 and Dylan Brumfield, Smith and J.D. Allen finished with 10 each. Jarron Wilkens had nine rebounds and Brumfield and Jariyon Wilkens had eight boards each.
Jones made just 21-of-67 shots from the field for 31 percent, 5-of-22 3-pointers for 23 percent and 15-of-26 free throws for 58 percent. Pearl River connected on 26-of-65 shots for 40 percent, 10-of-20 3-pointers for 50 percent and 16-of-22 free throws for 73 percent.
PRCC outrebounded Jones, 52-42, and had 17 assists compared to nine for the Bobcats. The Wildcats had 16 turnovers and Jones had 14.
Each team had 28 points in the paint and PRCC had 20 points off of turnovers compared to 12 for Jones. The Wildcats had 22 points off the bench and the Bobcats had eight.
Pearl River, 20-2, meets East Mississippi at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in a semifinal game. EMCC beat Northwest 69-55 in a first-round game. No. 23 Northeast, who beat Hinds 59-57 on a last second shot, faces Meridian at 3 p.m. in the other semifinal game. The Eagles rallied from a 15-point, second half deficit and downed Southwest, 53-47.
